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Magee-Womens, Pitt join study of pregnant and new moms’ responses to COVID vaccines

PITTSBURGH — The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced Friday that it “recommends that all eligible persons, including pregnant and lactating individuals, receive a covid-19 vaccine or vaccine series. "

Obstetrician-gynecologists and other women’s health care practitioners should lead by example by being vaccinated and encouraging eligible patients to be vaccinated as well the organization said.

Referred to as a “Practice Advisory” according to The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists website, it was developed by a public health expert work group in collaboration with physicians across the country.

According to our partners at TribLive.com, those doctors included Dr. Richard Beigi, president of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland. He is part of team that helped design the trial that Magee-Womens and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Oakland are participating in.

The advisory comes a week after Beigi and Pitt began enrolling patients in this national trial from Western Pennsylvania. The local women and their babies, along with others from 19 sites nationally, will be part of a study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the immune response to covid-19.

“There is some data about the safety of the vaccine for pregnant and postpartum women and their babies, but we need more,” Beigi said. “We are continually learning about covid-19, and we have reason to believe that covid-19 is not going away anytime soon.”