Planning for the future of maternal immunization: Building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Dana Meaney-Delman; Sarah Carroll; Kara Polen; Tara C Jatlaoui; Sarah Meyer; Sara Oliver; Julianne Gee; Tom Shimabukuro; Hilda Razzaghi; Laura Riley; Romeo R Galang; Van Tong; Suzanne Gilboa; Sascha Ellington; Amanda Cohn

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.069

Planning for the future of maternal immunization: Building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

Vaccine. 2024 Feb 28:S0264-410X(24)00081-1. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.069. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Dana Meaney-Delman¹, Sarah Carroll², Kara Polen³, Tara C Jatlaoui⁴, Sarah Meyer⁴, Sara Oliver⁴, Julianne Gee⁵, Tom Shimabukuro⁵, Hilda Razzaghi⁴, Laura Riley⁶, Romeo R Galang⁷, Van Tong³, Suzanne Gilboa³, Sascha Ellington⁴, Amanda Cohn³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States. Electronic address: vmo0@cdc.gov.
² American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Washington, D.C, United States.
³ Division of Birth Defects and Infant Disorders, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
⁴ National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
⁵ Immunization Safety Office, Division of Healthcare Quality and Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.
⁶ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
⁷ Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States.

PMID: 38423818
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.069

Abstract

As the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, the clinical and public health community raced to understand SARS-CoV-2 infection and develop life-saving vaccines. Pregnant persons were disproportionately impacted, experiencing more severe illness and adverse pregnancy outcomes. And yet, when COVID-19 vaccines became available in late 2020, safety and efficacy data were not available to inform their use during pregnancy because pregnant persons were excluded from pre-authorization clinical trials. Concerns about vaccine safety during pregnancy and misinformation linking vaccination and infertility circulated widely, creating a lack of vaccine confidence. Many pregnant people initially chose not to get vaccinated, and while vaccination rates rose after safety and effectiveness data became available, COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was suboptimal and varied across racial and ethnic distribution of the pregnant population. The COVID-19 pandemic experience provided valuable insights that can inform current and future approaches to maternal vaccination against.

Keywords: COVID-19; Maternal immunization; Vaccine.