EDINA, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Health announced Wednesday that next week it will know the order of who might get a COVID-19 vaccine. But vaccine trial research leaves out a specific population – pregnant women.
That concerns Dr. Katie Toft, the Medical Director for Premier ObGyn of Minnesota.
"Excluding them actually ends up putting them at some risk though, so it's not ideal," says Dr. Toft.
The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine even released a new letter, writing that exclusion is “harmful," and "has been characterized as clinical experimentation.” You can read the full letter here.
"We're going to have to use a lot of knowledge we've gained from other vaccine use in pregnancy, and extrapolate and make some really good, well-educated decisions with our patients," says Dr. Toft.
Toft and the SMFM say the COVID-19 vaccine is similar to the Ebola vaccine, the only one deemed safe to use during pregnancy. Even the flu vaccine is still in Phase One and Two trials, but is widely accepted because of years of gathering information - not because of any organized studies.
"That definitely creates a little bit of a fear factor that we're going to have to overcome," explains Dr. Toft.
In general, she does recommend getting the vaccine due to the high level of community spread, but says she will also weigh what, if any, other underlying conditions a woman might have, like diabetes.
She especially hopes a vaccine is available to pregnant health care workers.
"Unfortunately, I have a lot of nurses and health care professionals that are reaching out and saying, 'I'm not able to avoid (COVID) right now,' and that's a challenging place that women are finding themselves in right now," Toft says.
Besides vaccines, Dr. Toft says pregnant women are also not included in trials for things like medications. And while exclusion is done to try and protect women and their unborn babies, Dr. Toft knows all too well the delicate balance to also keep them safe from the unknown.