Covid-19 vaccine in pregnancy may protect babies after birth

Covid-19 vaccines during pregnancy can protect babies after they’re born and lead to fewer hospitalised infants, a US government study released on Tuesday suggested.

The study is the first to show potential benefits to infants born to people who received two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines during pregnancy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers said during a briefing.

It was already known that antibodies developed by Covid-19 vaccines transfer to the foetus through the umbilical cord. How that might affect infants after birth was uncertain.

“Until this study, we have not yet had data to demonstrate whether these antibodies might provide protection for the baby against Covid-19,” said Dr Dana Meaney-Delman, an obstetrician and CDC researcher.

Infants in the study were treated at 20 hospitals in 17 states from July 2021 through mid-January, during surges involving the delta and omicron variants.

The researchers didn’t examine infection rates in infants. Instead, they looked at data on 176 children under 6 months who were hospitalised with Covid-19 and 203 in the hospital for some other condition. They also looked at the vaccination status of all the babies’ mothers.

Vaccination rates were much lower among mothers of the Covid-19 infants than among those whose infants were hospitalized with something else — 16 per cent compared with 32 per cent.

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“It’s not surprising, but very reassuring,” Jamieson said.