Team will attempt to fill “unacceptable” dearth of evidence on pregnancy and Covid-19 vaccinations
Scientists at the University of Oxford embarking on a major study of Covid-19 and pregnancy say the dearth of evidence on the issue is “unacceptable” and is allowing misinformation about vaccination to flourish.
Doctors have strongly urged pregnant women to become vaccinated, and have said that no safety concerns have emerged in the wake of the huge number of vaccinations given to date. But the lack of vaccine trials involving pregnant women has led to vaccine hesitancy among some women, fuelled by unfounded social media rumours questioning safety claims.
José Villar, a professor of perinatal medicine at the University of Oxford, is behind a major project that is trying to fill this evidence gap. The study involves 1,500 pregnant women diagnosed with Covid-19 during pregnancy across 40 global medical institutions over a four-month period.
“Pregnant women were not even included in vaccine trials, which has allowed unscientific, scary ‘information’ to be widely disseminated; hence, they are undervaccinated [as a group],” he said.
The problem has been compounded by the rapid emergence of new variants of Covid-19 with different characteristics.
“The effect of the new variants in pregnancy is unknown,” said Villar. “We are launching the second global effort to address this unacceptable situation.”
Villar’s study is the second phase of the global Intercovid study, and will evaluate the effect of new variants such as Omicron on pregnant women and newborns, as well as looking for any effect of vaccination on complications during pregnancy and the neonatal period.
Those involved will be followed until hospital discharge, to quantify the risks associated with exposure to the virus. The team is also studying 3,000 pregnant women with no evidence of Covid-19.
First phase
It follows the first phase of the Intercovid study that launched in April 2020, in which researchers provided women, families, healthcare providers and policymakers with evidence regarding the effects of Covid-19 in pregnancy.
“Working together at the start of the pandemic, the team rapidly collected evidence from across the world on the potentially devastating effects of Covid-19 in pregnancy—information that has influenced vaccine policy internationally,” said Aris Papageorghiou, professor of Fetal Medicine at the University of Oxford, who is co-leading the study.
“In this extension to the Intercovid study, the same team will now assess the effect of different Sars CoV 2 variants, as well as vaccines, on maternal and newborn outcomes.”
The results are expected to be ready in May 2022.