The Fiji National University’s (FNU) Explain the Science series hosted by the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (CMNHS) continues to enlighten Fijians on COVID-19, its impact and the role of vaccination, through a series of virtual panel discussions.
Moderated by CMNHS Associate Dean Research and Director of the Fiji Institute of Pacific Health Research (FIPHR), Dr Donald Wilson, the recent panellists consisted of Professor Michelle Giles, an Infectious Disease Physician and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University; Professor Caroline Homer, Co-Program Director, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and Honorary Emeritus Professor of Midwifery in the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology Sydney; and Fiji’s National Advisor for Family Health and national coordinator for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme, Dr Rachel Devi.
The panel discussion on Tuesday, 13 July 2021, was conducted via Zoom and live-streamed on the FNU and CMNHS Facebook pages.
Discussions highlighted the concerns about pregnancy and breastfeeding in relation to the COVID-19 infection and vaccines.
Professor Giles emphasised that there is no current evidence that the COVID vaccines negatively affect or have any harmful effects on an unborn child.
“A lot of women are probably thinking, is this vaccine safe for my baby or is it harmful? The additional question is, is COVID-19 harmful for my baby? Because we have no evidence that the vaccine is harmful to the baby but we actually have a lot of evidence that if you get COVID-19, that can be quite harmful to both you as a mom and for your baby,” she said.
“You all know from other viruses that this is a concern, but we haven’t seen evidence of this with COVID-19 in the studies that have been undertaken. Therefore, we don’t think there is this vertical transmission through pregnancy.”
Professor Giles emphasised that pregnant women should not worry about getting the Moderna vaccine as there is a lot of safety data available on the Moderna vaccine.
“We actually have much more safety data in pregnancy for the mRNA vaccine – that’s the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna vaccine than we do for the AstraZeneca.”
“There have been many, many thousands of pregnant women who’ve received the Moderna vaccine, particularly in the United States and there’s a good publication that summarizes their experience using Moderna vaccine in pregnant women.”
For Fiji, Dr Devi said pregnant women can choose between the AstraZeneca and the Moderna vaccines.
“There are the two vaccines in Fiji right now – AstraZeneca and Moderna, and while we are offering that, the faster immunity aspect with Moderna the mRNA vaccine (2nd dose within 28 days), if individuals choose to get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca, obviously, they can go ahead with it.”
“That option is theirs of course, but having said that, we are encouraging pregnant women to get Moderna for obvious reasons, that’s the 28 days gap between dose one and dose two, and early protection, just in light of all the cases that we have around Fiji, and the community transmission that is flaring up rather quickly.”
Click here to access the virtual panel discussion and detailed highlights of the event.