February 4, 2021: There are “no red flags” seen in the 10,000 pregnant women who have received Covid-19 vaccine shots so far, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday.

Pregnant women and young children were excluded from the original U.S. clinical trials of the vaccine. This concerns that there are no relevant data to ensure that the vaccines are safe for pregnant women, but Fauci said the Food and Drug Administration had not seen reason to worry yet.

Since Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are authorized in December, over 10,000 pregnant women, mainly health-care workers, have gotten the shots, Fauci said.

Fauci noted that there is evidence that a coronavirus infection can lead to a heightened risk of an adverse outcome in pregnancy, which might be why many pregnant health-care workers decided to get the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised pregnant women to consult their health-care provider before getting vaccinated.

 But the World Health Organization has struck a more cautious tone, saying last week that only pregnant women who are at high risk of being exposed to Covid-19 should get vaccinated.

As for young children, the FDA has authorized only Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for use in people 16 and older in the U.S., Whereas Moderna’s vaccine is approved for use in people 18 and older in the country.

Fauci said, “de-escalation studies” for younger children are underway. Such studies will look at the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness in progressively more youthful and younger children. Data from those studies should be available in “the next few months,” Fauci said.