Unlike UK, U.S. FDA Allows Pregnant and Nursing Women to Receive Experimental Pfizer COVID Vaccine
The U.S. FDA has given emergency use authorization (EUA) to the experimental Pfizer COVID mRNA vaccine, a type of vaccine that has never before been authorized for use in humans. The FDA's EUA for the Pfizer COVID vaccine follows an emergency use authorization in the U.K. about 10 days ago. Both governments have issued guidelines for the new vaccines, one set of guidelines for doctors and healthcare providers who will administer the vaccine, and a shorter set of guidelines for "recipients" who plan on taking the vaccine. Even though these guidelines cover the same vaccine from the same company (Pfizer), there are notable differences. The UK guidelines, issued by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, give strict warnings to doctors NOT to give the vaccine to women who are pregnant or nursing, or to women planning on becoming pregnant, with a warning about potential infertility issues. However, the U.S. FDA's guidelines contain no such warning.