A study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health, indicates that mothers who receive an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination or booster during pregnancy can give their babies strong protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection for at least six months after birth. These results, which were published in Pediatrics(link is external), highlight how crucial it is to get a COVID-19 vaccination and booster shot while pregnant to give babies strong protection from the virus that lasts until they are old enough to get their own vaccination.
Newborns and early infants are particularly sensitive to COVID-19, and even healthy infants may contract the virus and suffer serious health consequences. As of right now, there is no COVID-19 vaccine available for infants younger than six months. Previous findings from the Multisite Observational Maternal and Infant COVID-19 Vaccine (MOMIv-Vax) trial showed that antibodies produced by the vaccine were present in the cord blood of the neonates of pregnant volunteers who received both doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
This implied that the infants were probably protected from COVID-19 when they were too young to be immunized. But neither the duration nor the effectiveness of the newborns’ protection was known by the researchers at the NIAID-funded Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC), which carried out the study. By tracking the babies over their first six months of life, the research team aimed to collect this data.
Data from 475 babies born while their expectant mothers were enrolled in the MOMI-Vax study were examined in this section of the study. Nine locations around the US were used for the study. Among them were 271 babies whose moms had taken two doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccination while they were expecting.
The study’s remaining 204 babies were born to women who had received a COVID-19 booster shot in addition to both doses of the mRNA vaccine. To augment the information obtained during gestation and delivery, the newborns had evaluations at least once in the initial half-year following delivery. Additionally, parents disclosed if their infants had shown signs of COVID-19 or had become infected.
The researchers discovered that babies with high antibody levels at birth also had better protection against COVID-19 infection during the first six months of life, based on blood samples from the infants. Infants whose mothers had received an extra booster dose during pregnancy had higher levels of antibodies at birth and were better protected from COVID-19 infection at their follow-up visits, even though infants of mothers who received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had a strong antibody response at birth.
This study emphasizes the significant benefits of maternal vaccination for newborns too young to benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine, even though older children and adults should still adhere to CDC recommendations to stay current on their vaccinations and boosters: For COVID-19, none of the infants analysed during this trial needed to be hospitalized. Scientists will keep analysing the MOMI-Vax trial data to gain further understanding of baby COVID-19 protection.
Journal Reference
National Institute of Health, COVID-19 vaccination and boosting during pregnancy protects infants for six months | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
