According to a report, the Food and Drug Administration is likely to advise against giving pregnant women the Pfizer vaccine.
“I think the recommendation will be that pregnant women don’t get this vaccine until we know more,” said Dr. Paul Offit, member of the Agency’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, told CNN.
“However, as shown in this study, when you do a large clinical trial, you always get pregnant women because women don’t find out they’re pregnant until after they’re given a dose or two,” he said.
“So there were about two dozen women in this study who were pregnant and there doesn’t seem to be any harmful effects on them, but their babies weren’t born yet to find out,” Offit added.
He said this will also happen when the Vax is rolled out to healthcare workers and people in long-term care facilities. Some of the vaccinated will invariably be pregnant women.
On Friday, Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the Pfizer vaccine would be given the green light for use in the US by the FDA – and that vaccinations could start as early as Monday
A panel of external advisors to the FDA voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to endorse the emergency use of the vaccine and paved the way for the agency to clear the sting for the US.