I’m pregnant. Should I get a COVID-19 vaccine?
Without enough women in clinical trials, it is hard to say.
Credit: PhonlamaiPhoto / Getty Images
Getting any type of vaccination is a big decision when pregnant – but the more data we have the better informed we can be.
Unfortunately, around 75% of COVID-19 vaccine trials have excluded pregnant people, precluding them from the potentially life-saving benefits of vaccination. Because they were not part of clinical trials, there is not enough evidence around their safety and efficacy, which heavily impacts the decision to receive a vaccine.
“In a pandemic, where there’s a sense of urgency around getting important efficacy and safety data, we want that [data] in pregnant women as early as possible,” says Associate Professor Michelle Giles, an infectious diseases physician and specialist in maternal immunisation at Monash University. “If they’re not included in the original trials, there is a significant delay in getting