U.S. hospitals confront a wave of severe illness and death among the pregnant and unvaccinated

Young, pregnant and unvaccinated: Hospitals confront a wave of severe illness and death Over video calls from her bed in a Texas intensive care unit, Paige Ruiz gazed at the newborn girl who had gone home without her. Taking in baby Celeste's round cheeks, brown eyes and fine hair, she sometimes became so overcome with longing that she started crying, recalled her mother, Robin Zinsou. Then crying would turn to coughing, and Ruiz would have to hang up.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Those calls, painful Brittany Shammas, (c) 2021, The Washington Post YahooNews

...  Ruiz's death came as the delta variant sent infections soaring in the United States and as hospitals  reported a spike in critically ill patients like her: young, pregnant and unvaccinated. In a tragic paradox, those who are pregnant are simultaneously more likely to experience severe illness and death from covid-19 and less likely to get the shot capable of preventing such suffering. At least 171 have died, including 22 in August alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week and in an urgent health advisory recommending vaccination.

Just 25 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine while pregnant, according to CDC data, a figure that places them among the nation's most hesitant populations. The number remains low - 31 percent - even when people who were vaccinated before becoming pregnant are included. Their reluctance appears to be driven partly by months of unclear guidance and a lack of data for the expectant, both of which persisted until this summer - a consequence of their exclusion from early coronavirus vaccine trials.

Into that vacuum of information flowed misinformation about infertility and miscarriage, causing further confusion for those trying to make decisions for themselves and their babies. ...