Pregnant people at much higher risk of breakthrough COVID, study shows

Pregnant people who are vaccinated against the coronavirus are nearly twice as likely to get COVID-19 as those who are not pregnant, according to a new study that offers the broadest evidence to date of the odds of infections among vaccinated patients with different medical circumstances.

The analysis, based on medical records of nearly 14 million U.S. patients since coronavirus immunization became available, found that pregnant people who are vaccinated have the greatest risk of developing COVID compared to a dozen medical states, including being an organ transplant recipient and having cancer.

The findings come on top of research showing that people who are pregnant or gave birth recently and became infected are especially prone to getting seriously ill from COVID-19. And COVID has been found to increase the risk of pregnancy complications, such as premature births.