Robert Redfield, MD on Recommending COVID-19 Shots for Pregnant Women

I never thought we should vaccinate women [for COVID-19]. I was not in favor of that policy recommendation because the COVID vaccine did not prevent infection. So the argument that some people had that you had to vaccinate pregnant women to protect the unborn baby cause it would protect mommy from getting infected, that was not a true statement.

I think it was a mistake to vaccinate pregnant women. But I think it was more of a mistake, the real mistake related to the recent text messages [from Anthony Fauci] was not an open, transparent discussion of this for the public, so the public could make its own decisions about whether they thought they should take the vaccine when they were pregnant or not.

In general, this was not a smart recommendation. Remember, this vaccine, at the time, was a conditionally approved vaccine. It wasn’t fully approved. We didn’t have a lot of data on it. It was new technology… we didn’t quite understand the mRNA technology and all the potential downsides of it. I think it was an error in judgment, unfortunately. 

— Robert Redfield, MD. former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention