Epic researchers found that pregnant people, who are vaccinated against COVID-19, are twice as likely to get the virus as those who are not pregnant, The Washington Post reported March 31.
Researchers analyzed 13.8 million patient medical records from Epic between January 2021 and January 2022.
They measured risk of COVID-19 infection by analyzing the records in pairs of fully vaccinated patients from the same part of the country.
In each pair, one patient had the condition that was being measured, and the other did not.
They found that out of the 10,000 pregnant individuals included in the study, 90 percent of them were more likely to have been infected with COVID-19 than the same number of people who were not pregnant.
These findings suggest that pregnancy appears to pose a greater risk for contracting COVID-19 than having a weakened immune system.
"If you are fully vaccinated, that's magnificent," David Little, MD, lead author of the study and clinical informaticist at Epic told The Post. "But if you are fully vaccinated and become pregnant, you remain at higher risk of acquiring COVID."