We received confirmation this March from a group of Swedish researchers reporting in the British Medical Journal that COVID-19 raises one’s risk of developing thrombi—that is, blood clots. In fact, Covid can up that risk to that of 33 times what a person normally would face. Not 33% more. Thirty-three times.
Now, with this push for forced birth by the extreme right-wing, with state legislatures passing laws with no provisions for the life or health of the person in question, we will begin to see women struck down in the prime of their lives due to increased blood clots—in the brain, in the lungs, but especially in the placenta.
Pregnancy already is a state of being where blood clots are a danger. Now, COVID-19 comes to make pregnancy a deadly affair, particularly for those who are unvaccinated. JAMA Network Open published research in March letting us know this:
[A] severe form of SARS-CoV-2 placentitis with thrombohematomas occurring primarily in stillbirths from pregnancies complicated by SARS-CoV-2 infection during the 2021 pandemic wave. This pathology is distinctive and grossly identifiable, representing a change in the spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 pregnancy complications.1,2The thrombohematomas are likely a result of severe viral placental damage. Our findings suggest a pathogenetic mechanism for the reported increased risk of stillbirth associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2021.2,3
This study focused mainly on the delta strain, as that was the predominant strain of COVID-19 during the time interval. They examined forty-seven cases of placentitis caused by COVID-19, eight from 2020 and thirty-nine from 2021. Notably, omicron had yet to come onto the scene.
Here’s what they found:
In all cases, the placentitis was diffuse (>50% involvement). Twenty-nine of the 47 cases (62%), all from 2021, additionally had multiple intraparenchymal thrombohematomas (Figure). Of these, 21 (72%) were stillbirths. Seventeen of the 18 placentas without thrombohematomas were livebirths (94%).
[...]
All patients but 1 were unvaccinated. The vaccinated patient (from 2021) had a PCR-confirmed infection 7 weeks prior to delivery and was subsequently vaccinated once. It is unclear if she cleared her virus or completed her vaccination series. Her term livebirth was without thrombohematomas.
The figure referenced is to the right. The first panel leads this diary.
CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) out of the University of Minnesota reported on the JAMA Open Network study and summarized the above findings just so:
The researchers noted that placentitis in COVID-19 patients causes severe placental damage often leading to vaginal hemorrhage and newborn illness and death. Some variants of concern, such as Delta, they said, seem to cause more damage than others.
They also reported on another study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, that analyzed the data of more than 43,000 patients. According to CIDRAP, the researchers found that
After adjustment for demographic characteristics, underlying medical conditions, and smoking status, infected women were at double to triple the risk for severe illness such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis (hazard ratio [HR], 2.45), birth at less than 37 weeks gestation (HR, 2.08), and venous thromboembolism (blood clots) (HR, 3.08).
Recent studies have reported that COVID-19 is associated with abnormal coagulation profiles.32,33This is a serious concern for pregnant patients because pregnancy is associated with a hypercoagulable state, which might be exacerbated by SARS-CoV-2 infection. As previously reported in pregnant4and nonpregnant individuals,34we found that SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an increased risk of VTE [i.e., venous thromboembolism].
Of course, this points to the necessity of vaccination of all pregnant persons, within whatever guidelines may be taken into account for individual health backgrounds. (Every individual’s physiology differs somewhat, so it is always important for the patient to confer with a physician for the best course of action.) And of course, even with vaccination, this would not excuse or ameliorate the forced-birth campaign that these right-wing extremists are attempting to impose.
But along this course, those zealots will cause the deaths of many women, many of their own (fundamentalists and other purists who have been taught to eschew or otherwise disdain the vaccine for pseudoreligious reasons). These women will be at greatly increased risk for tragic outcomes. If the zealots have their way, these women will be condemned by biology to suffer clotting, thrombosis, extreme trauma, and even their own deaths.
