First of all, I want to make it clear that I am not now nor have I ever been pregnant. Now that I have your attention, I’ll add some context to that weird statement by saying how puzzled I am by all the controversy about whether or not there’s actually a federal recommendation against pregnant women getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
I admit, I actually did think about the movie “Signs” in which the lead character, Graham Hess, says “Everybody in this house needs to calm down and eat some fruit or something.” I think it fits.
I found a lot of news stories claiming that HHS and the CDC don’t recommend that pregnant women get the Covid-19 vaccine. What I actually found on the HHS web site says the opposite—the agency recommends it.
That seems to agree with the paper from the FDA leadership, published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Drs. Prasad and Makary (An Evidence-Based Approach to Covid-19 Vaccination. Authors: Vinay Prasad, M.D., M.P.H., and Martin A. Makary, M.D., M.P.H. Author Info & Affiliations). Published May 20, 2025. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsb2506929.
“Moving forward, the FDA will adopt the following Covid-19 vaccination regulatory framework: On the basis of immunogenicity — proof that a vaccine can generate antibody titers in people — the FDA anticipates that it will be able to make favorable benefit–risk findings for adults over the age of 65 years and for all persons above the age of 6 months with one or more risk factors that put them at high risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes, as described by the CDC (Figure 2).”
Figure 2 is a table which lists many medical conditions that are indications for getting the Covid-19 vaccine. Pregnancy is one of them, based on the idea that it could increase the severity of Covid-19 disease.
On the other hand, when I looked at the health care provider page on the CDC website, the table showing the clinical indications for the Covid-19 vaccine sends a confusing message by showing pregnancy as a condition for which there is currently “No Guidance/Not Applicable.”
Just in case this web page gets updated, I took a screenshot of that part of the table:
But elsewhere on the CDC website are pages which clearly recommend that pregnant women get the Covid-19 vaccine.
I’m not making any political statements here. I’m just an old guy who clearly does have an indication for getting the Covid-19 vaccine and I recently did just that last month.
Go Retire Psychiatrist 