Review of short-term and long-term adverse effects of covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy

• Published in: Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
• Main Authors: Diana Ramasauskaite, Dominyka Grinciute
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2023
• Subjects: Adverse effects; Maternal immune activation; mRNA vaccines; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2023.102667; https://doaj.org/article/3a28fcf60ffc4decaf69542c8f7bdd08

Background: The covid-19 pandemic sparked a debate about the safety of vaccines during pregnancy. However, pregnant women were excluded from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine phase 3 trials. As two years have passed since the first Covid-19 vaccine and more studies have been conducted, we want to evaluate the scientific literature to determine any actual risks in taking the vaccine during pregnancy. Methods: We conducted literature research using PubMed and Google Scholar databases from January to April 2023. As the review considers short- and long-term adverse effects it was divided into two parts. The first part was conducted as a systematic review. The second concerning long-term negative effects due to lack of research is a literature review. The inclusion criteria for the systematic review part were singleton pregnancies, women vaccinated during pregnancy, and studies from 2020 and later. The most common short-term pregnancy adverse effects were included in the search: preterm delivery, small gestation age, intrauterine death, congenital defects, stillborn, fetal growth retardation, spontaneous abortion. Maternal immune activation was the primary concern for the long-term adverse effects and whether vaccination could cause it. The search terms included maternal immune activation, fetal neurodevelopment, neuropsychiatric disorders and the studies used were from 2019. Results: Most studies showed no significant difference in short-term adverse effects between vaccinated and non-vaccinated women and their fetuses. However, the literature is insufficient to evaluate possible long-term adverse effects. Conclusion: Available evidence supports the safety of administering SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to pregnant women, but further systematic reviews and meta-analyses are essential. Maternal immune activation caused by vaccination may impact a child's neurodevelopment and should be a concern for future studies.