PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that less than half of Americans would advise pregnant women to take vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.
In May, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. On the CDC’s website, under a page labeled “General Recommendations for Vaccinating Pregnant Women,” it says, “No guidance/not applicable,” under COVID-19 vaccine.
The CDC still recommends the flu, Tdap — which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough — and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines.
The August survey of nearly 1,700 adults found that 48% would recommend the flu vaccine to a pregnant person this fall, 46% would recommend Tdap, 38% would recommend the COVID-19 vaccine, and just 31% would recommend RSV.
“What we're finding is that, although there are multiple vaccines that are recommended during pregnancy, because they provide a protection for the mother and also potential protection for the infant, that the public is not as knowledgeable as it should be,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jamieson says that, while the CDC is no longer recommending the COVID-19 vaccine, they are also not recommending against it.
“There's substantial research to suggest that a pregnant person, if advised by the person's health care provider, to take the Tdap vaccine, the COVID vaccine, the RSV vaccine, the flu vaccine, ought to do it when recommended during pregnancy, because the science suggests that there are benefits that outweigh the risks substantially in all three cases,” Jamieson said.
According to the center, “previous studies conducted by the CDC found that women who are or recently were pregnant and contract COVID-19 are at greater risk of death than women who get COVID-19 and are not pregnant, and that vaccinating them provides some protection for their newborns.”