Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS

COVID vaccines safely protect pregnant people: the data are in

Despite evidence that pregnant people are at high risk of serious disease, many remain unvaccinated.
  1. Shannon Hall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

COVID-19 can strike hard and fast — especially when you are pregnant. Alison Cahill, a specialist in maternal–fetal medicine at the Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas, vividly remembers a patient from the first wave of the pandemic who was 26 weeks pregnant and woke up one morning with a cough. Her condition declined so rapidly that she was admitted to hospital that evening. Within six hours, she had been transferred to the intensive-care unit (ICU), where she was sedated so that she could be placed on a heart–lung bypass machine. Owing to safety precautions, her husband had to communicate with the medical team from the parking area.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 601, 308-309 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00031-8

Editor’s note: Nature recognizes that transgender men and non-binary people can become pregnant. We occasionally use ‘women’ in this story when discussing studies that used the same language.

References

  1. Chinn, J. et al. JAMA Netw. Open 4, e2120456 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. DeSisto, C. L. et al. Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 70, 1640–1645 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kasehagen, L. et al. Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 70, 1646–1648 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Shimabukuro, T. T. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 384, 2273–2282 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Zauche, L. H. et al. Preprint at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-798175/v1 (2021).

  6. Atyeo, C. et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 13, eabi8631 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Theiler, R. N. et al. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. MFM 3, 100467 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Morgan, J. A. et al. Obstet. Gynecol. 139, 107–109 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Gray, K. J. et al. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 225, P303.E1-303.E17 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Beharier, O. et al. J. Clin. Invest. 131, e150319 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Shook, L. L. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.17.21266415 (2021).

  12. Shamshirsaz, A. A. et al. Am. J. Perinatol. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-1674-6120 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links