COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy—already known to protect women from hospitalization and severe complications—can also protect babies younger than 6 months, researchers reported today.In other COVID-19 research developments, a separate team that looked at COVID-19 hospitalizations in kids found that levels jumped dramatically during the Omicron variant surge, especially in kids younger than 4, a group not eligible yet for vaccination.Real-world evidence of baby benefitsThe study on the impact of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy on the youngest infants examined hospitalization trends across 20 children's hospitals in 17 states from July 2021 through January 2022.
The team published its findings today in an early online edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).At a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) briefing today, Dana Meaney-Delman, MD, MPH, who wasn't involved in the study and heads the CDC's Infant Outcomes Monitoring Research and Prevention Branch, said scientists already now that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are found in umbilical cord blood and can cross the placenta.
However, she said it wasn't known if the maternal antibodies provided any protection to babies."Now we have real-world evidence in babies younger than 6 months," she said.The study authors found that babies born to pregnant women who had received two doses of an mRNA vaccine were 61% less likely than those born to unvaccinated moms to be hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection.Of 176 babies hospitalized with COVID-19 over the study period, 84% were born to mothers who were unvaccinated during pregnancy.