At 36 weeks pregnant, a health worker in South Florida receives her first shot of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl three weeks later – with COVID-19 antibodies.
According to doctors, the newborn baby is the first known case of a baby born with coronavirus antibodies in the US, which could offer her protection against the virus.
Dr. Paul Giblert and Dr. Chad Rudnick presented their findings in a pre-print study, meaning they have not yet been reviewed by the peer. They found that the antibodies were detected during childbirth, after analyzing the blood from the umbilical cord of the baby taken immediately after birth, and before giving birth to the placenta.
“We have shown that SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in a newborn’s cord blood sample are detectable after only a single dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine,” they concluded. “Therefore, there is potential for protection and infection risk reduction of Sars-CoV-2 with maternal vaccination.”
However, the doctors emphasize that more research is needed verify safety and effectiveness of the vaccines against coronavirus during pregnancy.
It has already been known that mothers previously infected with COVID-19 can transmit antibodies to their newborns. In addition, the passage of maternal-infant antibodies through the placenta has been well documented in other vaccines, including those for influenza, and physicians were therefore hopeful that the same newborn protection would be possible after maternal vaccination against COVID-19.
“It’s really starting to align the COVID vaccine with the vaccines we’re already using in pregnant women, such as the flu vaccine,” said Dr. Neeta Ogden, a specialist in internal medicine and immunologist, told CBSN on Wednesday. “We really need it, and it’s clear we need important information about how safe it is in pregnant women.”
These early results may help give pregnant women more reason consider getting the vaccine.
“It is also hopeful because it provides a level of protection to one of the most vulnerable populations, the newborn,” Ogden said, stressing the need for further study of pregnant women during this pandemic.
Because COVID vaccines have not been approved for children yet, she said, “If we can see this kind of safe transfer of antibodies from the vaccine to mothers’ newborns, I think it’s really a good step in the right direction.”
Other recent studies, which have also been shared in preprint and have not yet been peer-reviewed, support the findings.
Massachusetts General Hospital recently studied 131 women – 84 pregnant, 31 breastfeeding and 16 non-pregnant – who all received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccinations. They found equally strong immune responses in pregnant and lactating women as the control group. In addition, antibodies were present in the placenta and breast milk of each sample taken.
“Antibodies from mothers generated by vaccine were detected in the umbilical cord blood of all ten babies born during our study period,” said co-author, dr. Andrea Edlow, a medical-fetal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CBS News on Wednesday. “Our data suggest that receiving both shots of the mRNA vaccine leads to better transfer of antibodies to newborns.”
In another study from Israel, antibodies were found in all 20 women who were tested and who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, both during their third trimesters and in their newborns, also through placental transmission.
Last month, Pfizer announced that it had begun the first large-scale trial of its vaccine on pregnant women, which it was expected to complete by early 2023. Its vaccine was approved in December in the US and millions of people. , including thousands of pregnant women, have already taken it.
Moderna, whose vaccine also received an emergency permit in the United States in December, did not start trials focusing on pregnancy, but set up a registry to track down pregnant women who receive the vaccine . Johnson & Johnson, which received emergency use permission for its vaccine last month, said it plans to include pregnant women and their babies in its studies, as well as to gather information about pregnant women via a registry.
Pregnant women were excluded from the original trials of the COVID-19 shots of Moderna and Pfizer, which are common in such studies.