Why pregnant women face special risks from COVID-19

Why pregnant women face special risks from COVID-19: Data on pregnancy and COVID-19 are woefully incomplete. But they offer some reassurance: Fetal infections later in pregnancy appear to be rare, and experts are cautiously optimistic that the coronavirus won’t warp early fetal development. But emerging data suggest some substance to the other worry of Afshar’s patients: Pregnancy does appear to make women’s bodies more vulnerable to severe COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. That’s partly because of pregnant women’s uniquely adjusted immune systems, and partly because the coronavirus’ points of attack—the lungs and the cardiovascular system—are already stressed in pregnancy.