Pregnant women in Britain should get a Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna because there is more real-world data to show they are safe, the British public body that advises on vaccinations said today.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said around 90,000 pregnant women had been vaccinated in the United States, mainly with the two American vaccines, without any safety concerns being raised.
"Based on these data, the JCVI advises that it is preferable for pregnant women in the UK to be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines where available," it said. "There is no evidence to suggest that other vaccines are unsafe for pregnant women, but more research is needed."
Pregnant women had previously been advised against taking the vaccine in Britain because not enough information was known about the impact.
"I encourage all pregnant women when they are called to get the jab to come forward and discuss the benefits and risks of the vaccine with a trusted source like their GP, obstetrician or midwife," Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
Britain recently advised that all under 30s should be given alternative vaccines to the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot if possible because of a "vanishingly" rare side effect of blood clots in the brain.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has confirmed to the HSE that the additional 547,000 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine that Ireland is due to receive before the end of June will be delivered in a steady fashion as part of its normal weekly deliveries of vaccine doses, starting from 26 April.
The clarification removes a key uncertainty that had made the recalibration of the national vaccine rollout plan more difficult over the past week.
That recalibration was necessary because of last week's recommendation by NIAC that the alternative AstraZeneca vaccine should no longer be given to people under the age of 60 in Ireland.
The 547,000 additional Pfizer vaccines are Ireland's share of a deal brokered between the company and the European Commission to bring forward the delivery of 50 million doses to the European Union from the fourth quarter of this year into the current quarter.
That deal was was announced earlier this week.
However, the fact that the HSE had no confirmation about the timing of the additional Pfizer deliveries or the schedule in terms of quantities to be delivered made it more difficult to recalibrate the National Vaccine Rollout Plan.
This evening's confirmation from Pfizer of a smooth, regular and predictable delivery schedule for the additional vaccines removes that uncertainty and allows the HSE greater confidence about the scaling up of the vaccine rollout for the weeks ahead.
The clarification means that for the next ten weeks, Ireland will receive in the region of 50,000 addition doses of the Pfizer vaccine per week over and above the regular weekly deliveries.
It brings to 2,675,000 the number of doses of the Pfizer vaccine that Ireland will receive during April, May and June this year.
Additional reporting by George Lee
