As a maternal-fetal medicine physician I am even more convinced than Vinay that pregnant women should not get a Covid vaccine. during Covid I was on the HHS Advisory Committee On Infant Mortaliity. I am also the medical director of a Birth Center in Minnesota. In 2022 our Midwife team was caring for a patient in her third trimester. She received her third dose of the Moderna vaccine. Within days she experienced extreme right upper quadrant pain. To make a long story short, she ended up with a ruptured liver. Fortunately, she was delivered by emergency cesarean section, but required re-operation and spent days in the ICU. When I called the intensivist who was caring for her and told him this needed to be reported to VAERS. He argued that her hepatic rupture had nothing to do with her recent vaccination and that it would only cause vaccine hesitancy to report this. I was astounded and then spent three months trying to get this reported to the CDC. Despite my role on the advisory committee that never happened. The thing about this story that frightens me the most is that this mother told me that she had similar right upper quadrant pain after her second dose earlier in pregnancy. I do not disagree that vaccination for Covid earlier in the pandemic may have been life-saving for mothers with comorbidities. The fact that ACOG continues to push vaccination is alarming. In 2026 I have not yet seen one mother who desires a Covid vaccine.
And Vinay for win 🏁
Hyperbole, use of irrelevant straw men arguments and dogmatic assertions: “the lady doth protest too much, methinks”.
In contrast, calm, carefully reasoned arguments based on real data and leavened with a dash of humility are much more likely to be taken seriously.
As a maternal-fetal medicine physician I am even more convinced than Vinay that pregnant women should not get a Covid vaccine. during Covid I was on the HHS Advisory Committee On Infant Mortaliity. I am also the medical director of a Birth Center in Minnesota. In 2022 our Midwife team was caring for a patient in her third trimester. She received her third dose of the Moderna vaccine. Within days she experienced extreme right upper quadrant pain. To make a long story short, she ended up with a ruptured liver. Fortunately, she was delivered by emergency cesarean section, but required re-operation and spent days in the ICU. When I called the intensivist who was caring for her and told him this needed to be reported to VAERS. He argued that her hepatic rupture had nothing to do with her recent vaccination and that it would only cause vaccine hesitancy to report this. I was astounded and then spent three months trying to get this reported to the CDC. Despite my role on the advisory committee that never happened. The thing about this story that frightens me the most is that this mother told me that she had similar right upper quadrant pain after her second dose earlier in pregnancy. I do not disagree that vaccination for Covid earlier in the pandemic may have been life-saving for mothers with comorbidities. The fact that ACOG continues to push vaccination is alarming. In 2026 I have not yet seen one mother who desires a Covid vaccine.
Vinay brought the receipts
I enjoyed reading this debate about Covid vaccinations. Thank you SM.
Off the main topic but referenced : the benefit for oldsters given the Covid shot in hospitalization rates seems to be a minimal ARR?