Ontario will be the first state to prioritize pregnancy in the deployment of COVID-19 vaccination

After months of diversion of advice, Ontario became Canada’s first pregnant woman-first state. COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears Vaccine deployment plan without special conditions.

Healthcare professionals and experts say the move is a victory for pregnant women and public health.

“I think it’s really great that they took this big change in stance,” said Courtney Westerleken, Ottawa’s family doctor who was pregnant and was the first to be denied the vaccine because of her pregnancy. The doctor said.

Health Minister Christine Elliott of Ontario said her team was learning a lot about vaccines in a very short amount of time.

“Although not very strict, pregnant women are encouraged to consult their GP or nurse practitioner before receiving the vaccine,” she told reporters on Monday.

When health officials released details of the state’s vaccination program on Friday, they cited pregnancy as a factor that puts someone at risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. This means that pregnant women are now eligible for the vaccine during the second phase of state development.

Saskatchewan includes pregnant women with serious heart disease in the second phase of the state’s vaccination program. Other states have unplanned pregnancy and have issued individual advice that pregnant people should consult their doctor about the vaccine. The Quebec plan brings together pregnant women and children, and states that their eligibility will be “based on future research on vaccine safety.”

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Dr. Heather Watson, an obstetrics and gynecology fellow at the University of Manitoba, said Ontario did the right thing.

“COVID, in severe cases during pregnancy, our study shows that the risk of hospitalization (in the intensive care unit) is about three times that of non-pregnant people,” she said in an interview on Sunday. Said in.

“Historically, we know that vaccines work effectively outside of pregnancy.”

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She said other states have come and are doing their best to include pregnancy in discussions about access to vaccines.

Watson is one of eight collaborators on the Canadian Obstetricians and Gynecologists Association’s recommendations to physicians on vaccination of pregnant women, announced on 18 December and reaffirmed on 5 March. vaccine.

“Women should not be ruled out of vaccination based on their pregnancy status or breastfeeding,” their recommendation states.

That was exactly what happened, Westerleken said. In January, she was said to be a vaccine priority because she works at the COVID-19 Assessment Center. She was said to have been excluded when she showed her pregnancy on the form, “I wasn’t very happy,” she said in an interview on Monday.

She said other front-line health care workers lied to the form if it wasn’t clear early in pregnancy, just to allow vaccination.

Wester Leken said authorities had changed their stance by the time her shots turned, and she received her first dose about three weeks ago.

Dr. Constance Nassero, president of the Ontario Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the approach changed because of the changing evidence.

Pregnant people were, as a general practice, excluded from the initial trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, she said. However, as the trial progressed, 36 people reported pregnancy, and they have been tracked since then.

For some time, only 36 people had data on how these vaccines affect pregnancy, according to Nassero. As a result, pregnant women were told that there was not enough evidence to be vaccinated. More data are now available, showing that vaccination is safe and effective during pregnancy, Nasero said.

In addition, evidence also indicates that pregnancy is a risk factor for more severe COVID-19 symptoms that require hospitalization and intensive care, she said.

Her organization has advocated vaccination for pregnant women for months, and she said she was “very happy” to see Ontario change course.

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