A newborn baby with Coid-19 antibodies was born to a woman after she received the first dose of the covid vaccine while pregnant in South Florida, US. Two paediatricians presented this case in a preprint article and claimed that this proves there is a potential of reducing Covid infection with ‘maternal vaccination’.
The mother was a frontline healthcare worker who got inoculated with the Moderna vaccine in January 2021, when she was 36 weeks pregnant at the time, said the article authors, Dr Paul Gilbert and Dr Chad Rudnik.
“A vigorous, healthy, full-term female was born to a Covid-19 naïve mother who had received a single dose of mRNA vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 three weeks before delivery,” the study found.
Besides this, antibodies to the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 were discovered in the cord blood at the time of delivery. Cord blood is the blood found in the placenta and the umbilical cord after the delivery of a baby.
However, the study authors have stressed the significant and urgent need for research on the safety and efficiency of the vaccinations against coronavirus during pregnancy. Asserting that the time on how long the antibodies last in the newborn infants is not known yet, the authors stated that a measure of this duration can help determine the best time to begin vaccinations for those born to vaccinated mothers.
“To our knowledge, this was the first in the world that was reported of a baby being born with antibodies after a vaccination,” said Dr Gilbert.
He further explains, “We tested the baby’s cord to see if the antibodies in the mother passed to the baby, which is something we see happen without vaccines given during pregnancy.”
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When compared to adults, only fewer children have tested covid-19 positive. While they can be infected with the virus, most of them have mild symptoms of Covid-19 or are asymptomatic.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country’s top public health agency, babies under the age of 1 and with underlying conditions could be more likely to contract a severe form of the illness. In a few cases, a mother who recovered from Covid while pregnant had given birth to babies with antibodies.