RFK Jr. says healthy pregnant women don’t need Covid boosters. Science says threat still meaningful

By Jackie Fortiér | KFF Health News

You’re pregnant, healthy, and hearing mixed messages: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is not a scientist or doctor, says you don’t need the covid vaccine, but experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Protection still put you in a high-risk group of people who ought to receive boosters. The science is on the side of the shots.

Pregnant women who contracted Covid-19 were more likely to become severely ill and to be hospitalized than non-pregnant women of the same age and demographics, especially early in the covid pandemic.

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A meta-analysis of 435 studies found that pregnant and recently pregnant women who were infected with the v