HEALTH Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has urged pregnant women to take the COVID-19 vaccine, lamenting that a large number of the patients in institutional isolation are pregnant women.
Getting into details during his daily COVID-19 briefing on Friday, the Health Minister said 23 of the 63 patients in institutional care pregnant women.
“I want to appeal to pregnant women, if they haven’t been vaccinated, please go and get vaccinated. Because if you get COVID, you will have a milder form of it,” Dr. Anthony reasoned.
The minister recognised there are concerns in the public about the effects of the vaccine on women and rebutted those claims, saying the consensus of the international authorities on vaccines and the obstetrician societies is that vaccines harm neither the mother nor child.
Dr. Anthony said there are studies already published on this. He clarified that pregnant women could get their vaccines in any trimester.
“It is never too late and even after delivery, you can also get vaccinated if you weren’t,” he added.
Even after delivering, Dr. Anthony continued, a woman could get vaccinated; this would provide added benefits to the child through breastfeeding, as the antibodies developed in the mother could pass to the child during breastfeeding.
