COVID-19 and Pregnancy: Placental Risks, Vaccination Safety, and Fetal Protection

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• COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy: Safety and Urgency
• Delta Variant and Severe Placental Damage
• SARS-CoV-2 Receptors in the Fetus and Placenta
• Post-COVID-19 Pregnancy Monitoring and Risks
• Fertility and Vaccination: Debunking Myths
• Full Transcript

COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy: Safety and Urgency

Dr. Yves Ville, MD, states unequivocally that pregnant women should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. He insists they must be treated like anyone else and not denied protective measures. Vaccination, even in the first trimester, is strongly recommended. Dr. Ville references extensive safety data from a US registry encompassing over 35,000 vaccinated pregnant women, which shows no increased risk of adverse outcomes. The real danger, he explains, is contracting the COVID-19 virus itself, which poses significant threats to both the mother and the developing fetus.

Delta Variant and Severe Placental Damage

A critical finding discussed by Dr. Yves Ville, MD, involves the extreme toxicity of the COVID-19 Delta variant to the placenta. He reports observing intrauterine death and acute fetal distress in the third trimester, even following mild maternal infections. The damage manifests a couple of weeks after the initial infection, where the placenta is found to be essentially destroyed by the virus. This underscores a terrifying reality: a pregnant woman with minimal symptoms can still experience a catastrophic placental event that jeopardizes the pregnancy, making prevention through vaccination paramount.

SARS-CoV-2 Receptors in the Fetus and Placenta

Dr. Ville's research provides crucial insight into how the virus causes damage. The SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to specific receptors in the body. His team found these receptors present from a very early stage in the placenta, as well as in the fetal kidneys and gut. Later in pregnancy, the receptors also appear in the fetal lungs. Dr. Yves Ville, MD, notes this distribution is actually reassuring regarding the risk of congenital malformations, as these organs are unlikely to be severely damaged by the virus. The primary target is clearly the placenta, which is vulnerable to destruction throughout the entire pregnancy.

Post-COVID-19 Pregnancy Monitoring and Risks

For women who contract COVID-19 during pregnancy, Dr. Ville advises extremely vigilant follow-up care. Even if the mother recovers well, the placenta may have been compromised by the viral infection. This damage can lead to impaired fetal growth and a significantly heightened risk of fetal distress later in the pregnancy. Careful monitoring of fetal growth and well-being becomes an essential part of prenatal care for these patients to identify any complications early. Dr. Anton Titov, MD, facilitates this important discussion on managing post-infection risks.

Fertility and Vaccination: Debunking Myths

Dr. Yves Ville, MD, directly addresses a persistent myth that COVID-19 vaccination could impair fertility. He categorically states there is no evidence—not even a theoretical basis—to support this claim. He characterizes such concerns as "fake news," defined by a complete lack of substantiating evidence. The interview with Dr. Anton Titov, MD, highlights that the only rational medical position is that vaccination does not affect a woman's ability to achieve pregnancy. This clear guidance is vital for dispelling misinformation and encouraging vaccination among those planning a family.

Full Transcript

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: A pregnant woman could be infected with the COVID-19 virus, but perinatal COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is not frequent. What is important to know about COVID-19 infections and pregnancy? What is the risk of congenital malformations in an unborn child due to COVID-19 infection in the mother?

Dr. Yves Ville, MD: This question is current. If you had asked it only eight months ago, answers would have probably been different. Now, what is important is to insist that pregnant women should be treated like anyone else—not less treated, not less considered.

There is no benefit to prevent or not expose women to the COVID-19 vaccine. Pregnant women should be vaccinated against COVID-19. The earlier, the better. First-trimester vaccination.

Pregnant women in the world are the individuals that are the least well looked after. When a hairdresser knows that a client is pregnant, the hairdresser is calling the obstetrician: "Can I give her a hair dye?" Yeah, why not? She's pregnant. A dentist asks, "Can I treat a tooth while she's pregnant?" Yeah, you better.

Pregnant women in the first trimester are the kind of people with whom you should not interact. Why is that? Because a pregnant woman in the first trimester has a one in four risk of losing the pregnancy. Whatever she does—she opens the windows and she breathes the air from the mountain—she has the same risk as going to the hairdresser, the dentist, and vaccination with COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccine doesn't increase the risk of anything. There is now the biggest registry from the US: over 35,000 women vaccinated at once against COVID-19, and there is no increased risk of anything. So the risk for the pregnant woman is actually to get COVID-19.

This risk is not only for yourself. It could be very severe if she's well advanced in the pregnancy. But with this COVID-19 strain, the latest strain, the Delta variant, what we've observed is extreme toxicity to the placenta.

Even in women with a mild COVID-19, a couple of weeks later, we've seen intrauterine death. We've seen acute fetal distress in the third trimester. When you look at the placenta, the placenta is essentially destroyed by the COVID-19 virus.

So there is much more risk not to be vaccinated and get COVID than not. People should be aware that with this latest Delta strain, the next one will be even worse—hopefully not. Even if the woman is not very symptomatic itself, within two or three weeks after that, the COVID-19 Delta virus can have got to the placenta at the time of the acute infection and gradually destroy the placenta.

What we've looked at: we've looked at the receptor of SARS-CoV-2 in the placenta, trophoblast in the first trimester. We looked at organs from specimens from the pathology, organs from different stages of development of the fetus. The receptor of SARS-CoV-2 we found only in the kidneys, in the gut, and the placenta.

Late in the pregnancy, the SARS-CoV-2 receptor was found in the lungs. This, to us, is very reassuring in terms of malformation risk because these are very unlikely to be destroyed or damaged by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In contrast, a placenta has SARS-CoV-2 receptors from very early on. The placenta could be affected and destroyed at any time. So vaccination is the answer for pregnant women even more than for people who are not pregnant.

If women get SARS-CoV-2, they recover. They should be very careful in the follow-up for fetal growth. Because if the placenta is hit by the virus and it is not lethal, it could affect fetal growth. One should be very, very aware of the risk of fetal distress.

Perhaps while we're discussing pregnancy and COVID-19 and vaccination, there is a persistent myth that keeps circulating about the fact that COVID-19 vaccination before pregnancy could affect a woman achieving pregnancy in the first place.

The characteristic of that kind of question is the characteristic of fake news. When you get fake news, the definition of that is that you have no answer. Otherwise, they wouldn't put it forward. This is put forward because there is no answer to that.

There is no evidence whatsoever—not the slightest evidence—that COVID-19 vaccination could affect fertility. There is not the slightest evidence even in the most elaborate theories. So the simple answer is no.

But what demonstration can you bring? Nothing. You can't bring any demonstration to fake news. It's based on nothing. So obviously, there is no rational answer to that.

Dr. Anton Titov, MD: That's very important to hear from a real expert, as you are the expert.