COVID vaccine ‘strongly recommended’ during pregnancy, Canadian doctors say

Canada’s gynecologists say COVID-19 vaccination “remains safe and strongly recommended” during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) issued the assurance Wednesday, a day after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a longtime anti-vaccine activist — declared the shot is no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women south of the border.

“It’s really a political decision in the U.S. that doesn’t change anything in the current knowledge and recommendations that we have in Canada,” said Dr. Isabelle Boucoiran, an obstetrician-gynecologist at CHU Sainte-Justine and a member of the infectious diseases committee of the SOGC.

“We have Canadian data showing that actually vaccination during pregnancy was associated with this decreased risk of hospitalization and preterm birth. So it’s not based on data from another country. It’s really based on all local data with our population.”

Pregnant women who become infected with COVID-19 are at higher risk of severe illness requiring hospitalization and intensive care than women who are not pregnant, the SOGC said. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine also helps protect against serious complications associated with the virus, such as preterm birth, the group says.

“I think one of the misperceptions I’ve seen a lot is this concern related to safety,” Dr. Boucoiran told CityNews. “And it’s really important to understand how a vaccine works to prevent this misperception.

“What is really important to know is that we have very good data on vaccine safety in pregnancy, even outside and before SARS-CoV-2 immunization. We already knew that vaccine was safe. And actually, vaccine mimics nature. So in nature, maternal antibody cross the placenta and protect the baby for the first month of life. And vaccines, they just do the same. Just use the machinery of the human body to do the same.”

The SOGC says pregnant women remain a priority population for COVID vaccination in Canada and that the shot also provides some immunity against the virus for the baby.

Dr. Earl Rubin of the Montreal Children’s Hospital recommends vaccinating children as well.

“Right now, generally speaking, healthy children should do fine,” said Dr. Rubin, director of the infectious diseases division at the hospital. “They get sick with COVID. But the goal of the vaccine is to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death. And that, although it happened, was not a common occurrence in healthy young children.

“We know that even pre-vaccines, going back to 2021, depending on what wave it was, we rarely saw severe illness in children who do not have underlying risk factors. The goal of the vaccine now, and most recently, is to prevent severe illness.”

‘Growing misinformation and disinformation’

Kennedy’s move to discontinue the shot in the U.S. is not based on any medical evidence, the SOGC says.

“I don’t know why there is this change of recommendation in the U.S., but everywhere else in the world, including in Canada and in Europe, immunization is still strongly recommended in pregnancy to prevent this kind of complication,” Boucoiran said.

Citing “an age of growing misinformation and disinformation,” the SOGC urged women and health-care providers to rely on “evidence-based science and clinical expertise” to make vaccine decisions.

Dr. Rubin claims Kennedy is disbanding reputable committees and groups that evaluate this on a scientific manner, warning Canadians to monitor where their information is coming from.

“RFK Jr. and his history and perspective of vaccines, I think you cannot blindly accept what he as an individual is putting out there,” he said.

“But there still are very good people in the States. So all of that to say that I don’t think we can just say, ‘oh, the States doesn’t believe in the vaccine. RFK Jr. doesn’t believe in the measles vaccine, and they’re in the midst of an outbreak, and they’ll maybe wake up and smell the coffee as the increased number of deaths and complications arise.”

Detected in Montreal wastewater

In Quebec, the province’s national health institute, the INSPQ, confirms there’s a new COVID variant circulating in the country – NB.1.8.1. The INSPQ says it has been detected in clinical samples first: 60 cases in Alberta, 16 in British Columbia, 21 in Ontario and three in New Brunswick.

It was detected in Montreal wastewater for the first time at the end of April.

“We need to see what variant is out there, how severe the illness is, what is the protectiveness of the vaccine that is available against the circulating variant. It’s something with a lot of moving parts,” Dr. Rubin said.

Both doctors say not much is known about it, though they are aware of the situation.

“Things are all so different now,” Dr. Rubin said. “People don’t have access to rapid home COVID tests. There’s not the large testing centres. So, but only time and public health monitoring of the situation will kind of tell us what’s going on.”

— With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press