By Jared Evan
A study entitled “Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons(LINK to abstract) was published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
From abstract “From December 14, 2020, to February 28, 2021, we used data from the “v-safe after vaccination health checker” surveillance system, the v-safe pregnancy registry, and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to characterize the initial safety of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant persons.
Here are the main results and numbers from the study’s abstract
- A total of v-safe participants 35,691 participants 16 to 54 years of age identified as pregnant
- Injection-site pain was reported more frequently among pregnant persons than among nonpregnant women, whereas headache, myalgia, chills, and fever were reported less frequently
- Among 3958 participants enrolled in the v-safe pregnancy registry, 827 had a completed pregnancy, of which 115 (13.9%) resulted in a pregnancy loss and 712 (86.1%) resulted in a live birth.
- The abstract states ” Although not directly comparable, calculated proportions of adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in persons vaccinated against Covid-19 who had a completed pregnancy were similar to incidences reported in studies involving pregnant women that were conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic”
However, upon examining the details within the report:
- Table 4 from the study, shown below, reveals that a total of 827 pregnant women were studied. Out of the 827 women, 700 of them received their first vaccine in their third trimester of pregnancy. This means 127 women received a vaccine during their first or second trimesters. (You have to read the fine print below the table to see this disclosure.)
- Out of the 127 women receiving vaccines during their first or second trimesters, 104 spontaneous abortions occurred before their pregnancies hit the 20-week mark. These are indicated as “spontaneous abortions” in the table.
Knowing this; the abstract’s statement that the numbers are similar to studies done before the pandemic is not exactly correct because there is an 82% rate of spontaneous abortions among these pregnant women who were vaccinated in the first 2 trimesters (less than 20 weeks), this is quite different than 104 out of 827.
The table below specifically states spontaneous abortion occurred 104 times to women pregnant 20 weeks or less. The percentage of 12.6% is misleading, as it seems most of the miscarriages occurred in a group of 127 women (104 out of 115 in total spontaneous abortions)
91% of the total reported spontaneous abortions documented in the study occurred in women who had the vaccine early in their pregnancy.
- Among 221 pregnancy-related adverse events reported to the VAERS, the most frequently reported event was spontaneous abortion (46 cases).
