7 Questions Experts CAN’T Answer About the COVID-19 Vaccine
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When can pregnant/breastfeeding women get vaccinated?
As I was explaining in another post, pregnant women have higher risks of COVID-19 complications than other healthy individuals. The virus can sometimes increase the risk of premature birth or other respiratory affections which may require medical assistance.
Ideally, pregnant women should have priority in getting the vaccine – except for one problem.
Vaccine manufacturers haven’t included any pregnant or breastfeeding people to their clinical trials, so they can’t confirm its safety for this category of women. On the other hand, note that pregnant women are very rarely included in any drug trials due to the risk of affecting the pregnancy (if the drug turns out to be unsafe).
Dr. Keipp Talbot, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says that so far there’s no evidence suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccine would be dangerous for pregnant or breastfeeding women.
With each pregnancy being unique, though, it’s best to talk to your obstetrician and make the right decision together. This in-depth article covers all the details you should know.
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Does the vaccine authorization put an end to trials?
More than 37,000 volunteers have participated in the Pfizer vaccine trials; almost 20,000 received a real vaccine dose while others were given a placebo.
Every phase of the trials has been successful, proving that the vaccine has a 94% efficiency rate. However, we still don’t know the long-term effects of the vaccine or how long this induced immunity lasts. This is exactly why it usually takes years until a vaccine is fully developed and put out on the market.
While there’s no doubt that the vaccine is safe for healthy individuals, it’s equally important for specialists to continue testing and especially evaluating patients from initial trials.
Therefore, various trials will continue to learn as much as possible about how the vaccine behaves in the long run.
Looking for more useful COVID-19 content? Check out our posts below:
- Do I Have to Wear a Mask After Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine?
- COVID-19 Symptoms May Show Up in This Order, Researchers Find
- Tired of COVID-19? Here’s How to Deal with Pandemic Fatigue
