COVID-19 Vaccines Confer Protection in Hospitalized Pregnant and Postpartum Women with Severe COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study
de Freitas Paganoti C., da Costa RA., Papageorghiou AT., da Silva Costa F., Quintana SM., de Godoi LG., Jiménez Monroy NA., Sacramento Rodrigues A., Pulcineli Vieira Francisco R.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had deleterious effects among the obstetric population. Pregnant and postpartum women constitute a high-risk group for severe COVID-19. Vaccination reduces the risk of infection, but it is not known whether women who be-come infected despite vaccination have a milder course of disease than those who had not been vaccinated. This retrospective cohort study evaluated whether vaccination reduces the severity of COVID-19 infection, as measured by severe maternal morbidity and mortality among hospitalized pregnant and postpartum individuals. A total of 2284 pregnant and postpartum women hospitalized with severe COVID-19 were included. Those who did and who did not receive COVID-19 vaccination were compared. The rates of intensive care unit admission, intubation, and mortality were significantly lower among subjects in the vaccinated group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respec-tively). The numbers of patients who needed to be vaccinated to avoid one case of intensive care unit admission, intubation, or death due to COVID-19 were 7, 7, and 9, respectively. The COVID-19 vaccine offers protective effects against intensive care unit admission, intubation, and death in hospitalized pregnant and postpartum women with severe SARS-CoV-2-induced SARS.