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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a call for “urgent action” recommending those who are pregnant get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The health body said immunization rates among that population lagged as covid-linked deaths among pregnant people reach their highest levels yet during the pandemic. In a health advisory released Wednesday, the CDC said it recommends coronavirus vaccines “before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination outweigh known or potential risks.” It said its advice applies to “people who are pregnant, recently pregnant … who are trying to become pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future.” (Pietsch and Suliman, 9/30)

The CDC issued "an urgent health advisory" on Wednesday urging people who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC said it "strongly recommends" vaccination because its benefits for a pregnant person and the fetus outweigh the risks. It added that pregnant people with COVID-19 are at "increased risk" of outcomes such as preterm birth, stillbirth and admission of a newborn into the ICU. (Gonzalez, 9/29)

Mississippi already has a higher-than-average prematurity rate, around 14%, however, it's too soon to know the impact COVID-19 may have on that rate. Since the virus came into the Magnolia State in March 2020, the Mississippi State Department of Health has reported more than 1,600 COVID-19 cases, 116 hospitalizations and 15 coronavirus-related deaths in expecting mothers. One infant that was less than 1 year old, has died in the state, though, it is not known whether the child was a newborn. The University of Mississippi Medical Center and Forrest General Hospital have cared for expecting mothers with COVID-19 who delivered their babies preterm because the mothers were acutely ill from the virus. (Haselhorst, 9/29)

Federal investigators charged two metro Detroiters on Wednesday in schemes to sell phony COVID-19 vaccine cards. Bethann Kierczak, a 37-year-old registered nurse from Southgate, allegedly stole vaccination record cards from the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit starting in May and sold them for $100-$200 apiece, primarily using the Facebook Messenger app, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. In a separate case, Rapheal Jarrell Smiley, 32, of Detroit, is accused of importing fake COVID-19 vaccine record cards from China and selling them using his Facebook and Instagram accounts. (Jordan Shamus, 9/29)

The co-founder and chief medical officer of BioNTech, the German firm which developed a Covid-19 vaccine alongside Pfizer, told CNBC that the world “should not live in fear” of the virus. “Covid will become manageable. It already has started to become manageable” Dr. Ozlem Tureci said in the latest episode of “The CNBC Conversation.”  However, she added that we will “need to go back to a new normality, because this virus will accompany us for, still, some years.” (Bryer, 9/30)