COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy protects infants in the first 6 months of life
More data demonstrates the benefit of vaccination for both mother and child
What was known before this newest report?
Infants are at risk for COVID-19–associated complications, including respiratory failure and other life-threatening complications.
There is evidence:
From other vaccine-preventable diseases that maternal immunization can provide protection to infant especially during the high-risk first 6 months of life as a result of passive transplacental antibody transfer.
Passive transplacental antibody transfer refers to antibodies produced during active immune response by the mother are transported across the placenta to the developing fetus.
Evidence related to COVID-19 demonstrates that transplacental transfer of SARS-CoV-2–specific antibodies might provide protection to infants. This new study provides further support of this.
Background of this new study
Vaccine performance was assessed by comparing the odds of having completed a 2-dose primary mRNA COVID-19 vaccination series during pregnancy among mothers of case-infants and control-infants (those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results).
Participating infants were less than 6 months old and admitted outside of their birth hospitalization to one of 20 pediatric hospitals.
The study and data collection took place during July 1, 2021–January 17, 2022.
During this time, the Delta variant was the predominant variant through December 2021, after which period Omicron became the predominant variant.
Mothers were considered vaccinated if they had completed a two-dose vaccination series of either Pfizer or Moderna.
Results of the study
There were 483 eligible infants in 20 pediatric hospitals across 17 states.
104 were excluded based on study criteria, and 379 infants were included, with a median age of 2 months old.
Of these infants, 24% were admitted to an ICU (intensive care unit) due to COVID-19 complications. 88% of these ICU-admissions were born to unvaccinated mothers.
15% were critically ill and received life-support during the ICU period, and 0.4% died, all of whom were born to unvaccinated mothers.
Discussion
During this study period, the data demonstrate that maternal completion of a 2-dose COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy was associated with reduced risk for COVID-19 hospitalization among infants younger than 6 months old)
The findings suggest that getting vaccinated during pregnancy may help protect against COVID-19 infant hospitalization through transplacental passive immunization of the developing fetus.
It is important to remember that COVID-19 during pregnancy is associated with severe illness and death of both the mother and fetus/infant.