evidence: COVID vaccines have been contentious ever since they were developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, though the evidence is that they are safe and effective. One of the concerns has been whether the vaccines were safe for pregnant women. A recent review looked at the evidence available from North America, Israel and Europe. The Conversation Africa’s Ozayr Patel asked vaccine specialist Marta C. Nunes to sum up the findings. [...] Current COVID-19 vaccines were not tested in pregnant women in the initial clinical trials. But in many countries, pregnant women did get the vaccine. Observational studies have been done since the vaccines became available, to generate information on the vaccines’ safety and how well they work. [...] The question was whether it was safe to vaccinate pregnant women with COVID vaccines. None of the studies found any safety concerns regarding these vaccines during pregnancy. The reactions to the vaccine that were reported by pregnant women were similar to the reactions that were reported by other adult people who got the vaccine. There was no difference between pregnant women and the general population as regards safety.