CDC "strongly recommends" COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant people
CBSN
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it "strongly recommends" the COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy, and it issued a call for "urgent action" to increase vaccination rates as COVID cases and deaths rise among mostly unvaccinated pregnant Americans.
The CDC says there have been more than 125,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pregnant people, including more than 22,000 who had to be hospitalized, and 161 deaths. About 97% of pregnant people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections have been unvaccinated, according to unpublished figures from the agency's COVID-NET surveillance data.
The alert follows the agency's move over the summer to bolster its recommendation that people who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant get vaccinated against COVID-19, citing a growing amount of evidence demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the shots to protect vulnerable parents and their newborns.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.