Open Vaccinations for Pregnant Women in India

The Issue

I am an eight months pregnant journalist, living in Delhi. It is one of the cities that is worst affected by India’s COVID second wave. Pregnant women are in a category that face a very high risk of mortality if they contract COVID. Despite this, pregnant women like me in India cannot get vaccinated to protect ourselves and our unborn child.

I spent the last one month talking to pregnant women who had contracted the virus in the second wave and to families who had lost a loved one, who was pregnant and COVID positive, and didn’t get medical attention on time.

Most said it was impossible to access life-saving healthcare.

These interviews are published in my recent story where I find that COVID hospitals in India are turning away pregnant women telling them to go to maternity hospitals, and maternity hospitals in turn refuse to admit them, saying they cannot take COVID patients. With nowhere to go pregnant women are losing crucial time, many of them succumbing to COVID-19.

Recent international studies have linked coronavirus to a higher rate of maternal mortality and increased risk of preterm and stillbirth. Despite this increased vulnerability, vaccination is not an option in India because the Modi administration says it is unclear whether the available vaccines, Covishield (AstraZeneca) and Covaxin are safe during pregnancy. Vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, which have data showing they are safe for pregnant women, are still not available in India.

These lives can be saved but we need to act now.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) should immediately prioritize vaccinations for pregnant women and their caregivers. Vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna (that are known to be safe for pregnant women) should be made available.

Safe spaces should be created for pregnant women to get vaccinated, so they do not contract the virus in overcrowded centres.

Strict penalties should be imposed on hospitals that deny medical assistance to pregnant women who are COVID positive. A 24/7 helpline and an enforcement body should be created to ensure this.

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Priyali SurPetition Starter
This petition had 76,642 supporters

The Issue

I am an eight months pregnant journalist, living in Delhi. It is one of the cities that is worst affected by India’s COVID second wave. Pregnant women are in a category that face a very high risk of mortality if they contract COVID. Despite this, pregnant women like me in India cannot get vaccinated to protect ourselves and our unborn child.

I spent the last one month talking to pregnant women who had contracted the virus in the second wave and to families who had lost a loved one, who was pregnant and COVID positive, and didn’t get medical attention on time.

Most said it was impossible to access life-saving healthcare.

These interviews are published in my recent story where I find that COVID hospitals in India are turning away pregnant women telling them to go to maternity hospitals, and maternity hospitals in turn refuse to admit them, saying they cannot take COVID patients. With nowhere to go pregnant women are losing crucial time, many of them succumbing to COVID-19.

Recent international studies have linked coronavirus to a higher rate of maternal mortality and increased risk of preterm and stillbirth. Despite this increased vulnerability, vaccination is not an option in India because the Modi administration says it is unclear whether the available vaccines, Covishield (AstraZeneca) and Covaxin are safe during pregnancy. Vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, which have data showing they are safe for pregnant women, are still not available in India.

These lives can be saved but we need to act now.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) should immediately prioritize vaccinations for pregnant women and their caregivers. Vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna (that are known to be safe for pregnant women) should be made available.

Safe spaces should be created for pregnant women to get vaccinated, so they do not contract the virus in overcrowded centres.

Strict penalties should be imposed on hospitals that deny medical assistance to pregnant women who are COVID positive. A 24/7 helpline and an enforcement body should be created to ensure this.

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Priyali SurPetition Starter

The Decision Makers

Anurag Kundu
Anurag Kundu
Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights
Responded
“About DCPCR: Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) is the statutory watchdog of the Government of Delhi on matters of child rights. Some of the child rights the Commission works are: protection of children from exploitation, sexual offences, child marriage, abuse, labour, trafficking, substance abuse, and violence. Right to Education with focus on children with special needs; Right to Health with emphasis on the pregnancy care, infant care, children’s nutritional growth,, immunisation, protection against malnutrition, etc; Protection of rights of children with special needs; Enforcement of legal protections for children in case they commit offences and the necessary safeguards associated therein; Context: The Government of India excluded pregnant women from its Covid-19 vaccination policy despite recommendation from the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group constituted by the Government of India itself. Several medical experts have recommended the same. Therefore, Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) formally recommended inclusion of pregnant women for vaccination to the Government of India. However, the Government neither responded nor accepted the recommendation. Secondly, the Government of India has allowed vaccination of lactating mothers. However, mere vaccinating them is not enough, monitoring and surveillance mechanisms post vaccination is critical to trace adverse events given the nature of potential risk that needs to be put in place. None of this has been done despite the recommendation from World Health Organisation (WHO) To safeguard pregnant women and lactating mothers against Covid-19, Delhi Commission For Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has approached the Supreme Court challenging the current policy of the Government of India. Our prayer: 1. Govt has allowed vaccination for lactating mothers but mere vaccinating them is not enough, monitoring and surveillance mechanism post vaccination is critical to trace adverse events given the nature of potential risk. 2. Allow vaccination of pregnant women. 3. Classify pregnant women & lactating mothers as high-risk category and priortise them for vaccination over healthy 18-45 year olds. This can be done by Co-win portal modifying to give higher priority to pregnant women & lactating mothers. 4. Wherever practical, separate vaccination centre/sites as these groups are vulnerable and hence must be kept away from normal vaccination centres where hundreds are coming everyday. Our Grounds: 1. Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) recommended in favour of vaccinating pregnant & breastfeeding women with tracking systems & concluded that “there is no obvious basis for excluding pregnant or lactating women from vaccination 2. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, US has recommended vaccination for pregnant women. There around 90,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated with no safety concerns so far. The study is based on the MRNA vaccination. 3. In the UK, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization has advised that pregnant women should be offered COVID-19 vaccines at the same time as people of the same age or risk group. 4. That the World Health Organization has recommended vaccination of pregnant women post designing & establishing the design of a surveillance mechanism to monitor the effects of vaccination. 5. That the current datasets exist only for mRNA vaccines, Gynaecologists associations such as FOGSI are of the opinion that the theoretical benefits of India’s vaccines would outweigh the risk of the disease. 6. Covaxin is a killed (inactivated) virus vaccine while Covishield is a Adenovirus vector-based vaccine. Both are non-replicating in nature and therefore have no safety concerns. 7. With help from NGO Indus Action, we consulted many experts including Dr. Gagandeep Kang (Professor, CMC, Vellore & Member COVID Working Group, GoI). Dr. Kang said that vaccines available in India are or are equivalent to inactivated vaccines which are considered safe in pregnancy Let Govt import vaccines for these groups but excluding them (eg: pregnant women) is NOT the solution which is what the Govt has been doing. Merely allowing without any tracking mechanisms to manage adverse reaction is simply an abdication of responsibility (eg: lactating women) Read the full petition here: https://tinyurl.com/83kjstuk The petition carries 8-page synopsis, 22 pages annexures, and 140 pages annexures. The matter has not been listed yet.”
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare of India
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Petition created on 17 May 2021