Outrage as reckless Russian expert wrongly advises pregnant women to have abortions during coronavirus pandemic

A Russian expert has shockingly told women to have abortions during the coronavirus pandemic despite there being no evidence of the virus’ impact on unborn babies.

Viktor Maleev, from the Russian Academy of Science, issued the outrageous advice as he urged women to either terminate their pregnancies or “not get pregnant” in the first place.

However, despite Mr Maleev’s comments - there is no indication of how coronavirus impacts pregnancy, or even if pregnant women can pass the virus to their unborn babies.


Leading UK experts have said there is “no evidence” that the virus may lead to miscarriages, there is “no evidence” the virus can pass to babies in the womb, and it is “unlikely” the virus would cause problems for babies' development.

Mr Maleev, the head of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, said:

We recommend to be careful at the early stages, do not get pregnant or terminate.

He also outrageously claimed that coronavirus can “influence conception” - but failed to offer any evidence as most experts do not believe this is the case.

His comments were first reported by state-run Russian newspaper RIA Novosti.

The academic himself even admitted there is “very little data” about the impacts on pregnancy after making his seemingly baseless comments.

Mr Maleev also remarked that it is very likely to get COVID-19 through paperwork, which might have been exposed to infected saliva - urging people to instead “work with gadgets”.

Oksana Drapkina, from Russia’s ministry of health, also said there is no scientific information about danger to the fetus.