The COVID‐19 vaccine in women: Decisions, data and gender gap

• Published in: Nursing Inquiry 2021-07, Vol.28 (3), p.e12416-n/a
• Main Authors: Mena‐Tudela, Desirée, Aguilar‐Camprubí, Laia, Quifer‐Rada, Paola, Paricio‐Talayero, José María, Padró‐Arocas, Alba
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Decision making; Gender differences; Health disparities; Pregnancy; Priorities; Women; Womens health
• ISSN: 1320-7881; 1440-1800
• DOI: 10.1111/nin.12416

SARS‐CoV‐2 has highlighted already existing gender inequalities, particularly in the field of care (Escuriet et al., 2020; O’Sullivan et al., 2009). [...]women represent 70% of health care workers worldwide and 80% of nurses in most regions (Boniol et al., 2019), with this profession engaging in particularly close contact with sick patients. [...]in Spain we have two digital tools that seem to be key in supporting lactation among women: Since their creation, both digital tools have received thousands of visits and often medical and nursing professionals alike also make use of these tools (Padró‐Arocas et al., 2021; Paricio‐Talayero et al., 2020). [...]the LactApp in‐app chat has received a total of 401 queries related to the COVID‐19 vaccine in the same period, accounting for 1.22% of total queries handled through the LactApp chat (401/31,781). Women, once again, are in second place of attention in terms of policy and research. [...]the overprotection of women and the seemingly prevailing paternalism, especially for pregnant and lactating women, potentially undermine their sexual and reproductive health, by acting in a harmful way to such important health areas as lactation (Kuehn, 2021).