Covid-19 vaccination during pregnancy reduced the risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19 for babies under 6 month-old by 80% for the Delta variant and by 40% for the Omicron variant.
Contrary to the antivaxx propaganda coming from the extreme right in the USA, a new study, sponsored by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has shown that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy reduced the risk of babies under 6 month old needing hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection, by 80% during the Delta wave and 40% during the Omicron wave.
The study, led by Dr. Bria M. Coates, MD, was conducted by investigators from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago and the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. It included infants younger than 6 months of age who were admitted to 30 paediatric hospitals in 22 states from July 1, 2021, to March 8, 2022. Dr Coates and his colleagues found that most infants (90 percent) who needed intensive care due to COVID-19 infection were born to mothers who were not vaccinated during pregnancy.
The results were published a few days ago in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital press release explains the importance of these findings:
Sadly, the paper in the New England Medical Journal is behind a paywall, but the abstract is freely available here and a pdf of the entire paper can be download from here. In it, the authors describe their methodology as:Infants aged younger than 6 months old are at high risk for complications of COVID-19, including severe respiratory failure or death and account for a disproportionately high percentage of hospitalizations among those aged 0-4 years. This study included data on 537 babies who were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 21 percent were admitted to the intensive care unit and 12 percent required mechanical ventilation, or extra help getting enough oxygen to the body, or vasoactive infusions. Two babies died because of COVID-19 and two required advanced life support that helps the body get enough oxygen; mothers of these babies were not vaccinated.Our results reinforce the importance of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy to protect both the women and their babies from COVID-19. Although protection was lower during the Omicron period, compared to the Delta period, even a moderate reduction in risk is important, because COVID-19 vaccines are not likely to be available for babies younger than 6 months old in the foreseeable future.
While protection for the baby is important, it is critical to remember that COVID-19 vaccines protect women against severe illness during pregnancy and reduce complications from COVID-19
Dr. Bria Coates, MD, co-author
Critical Care physician
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago
And Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago.
Researchers also found that effectiveness of maternal COVID-19 vaccination against COVID-19 hospitalization for babies was higher among women vaccinated after 20 weeks of pregnancy, versus early in pregnancy.
When considering the timing of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, the CDC and professional medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, recommend COVID-19 vaccination as soon as eligible and at any point in pregnancy. The CDC recommends that women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant, or might become pregnant in the future get vaccinated and stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.
MethodAnd they conclude:
We used a case–control test-negative design to assess the effectiveness of maternal vaccination during pregnancy against hospitalization for Covid-19 among infants younger than 6 months of age. Between July 1, 2021, and March 8, 2022, we enrolled infants hospitalized for Covid-19 (case infants) and infants hospitalized without Covid-19 (control infants) at 30 hospitals in 22 states. We estimated vaccine effectiveness by comparing the odds of full maternal vaccination (two doses of mRNA vaccine) among case infants and control infants during circulation of the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant (July 1, 2021, to December 18, 2021) and the B.1.1.259 (omicron) variant (December 19, 2021, to March 8, 2022).
ConclusionsIn addition to promoting a cull of their own supporters, the antivaxxer political right in the USA, who mostly also purport to be pro-life, are knowingly encouraging their gullible victims to refuse vaccines that could save the lives of countless unborn children.
Maternal vaccination with two doses of mRNA vaccine was associated with a reduced risk of hospitalization for Covid-19, including for critical illness, among infants younger than 6 months of age.
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