COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women may protect babies, says a new study

With information from Agência Brasil

A new study in Israel says vaccination against Covid-19 in pregnant women can protect babies.

According to research conducted in February, antibodies were detected in all 20 women who received both doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine during the third trimester of pregnancy, and in all of their newborns, through placental transfer.

“Our findings underscore that vaccination of pregnant can provide maternal and neonatal protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection”, says the study.

The findings of researchers at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem were published this month on medRxiv, an online distribution service for unpublished research manuscripts that have not yet been peer-reviewed, and released by the Israeli press on Tuesday. market.

However, the authors noted the small size of the study and said that additional research would be needed to measure the effect of vaccination at different stages of pregnancy.

One of the researchers, Dana Wolf, told the Jerusalem Post that the group will now research how long the antibodies caused by vaccinations will last in babies.

Pfizer and BioNTech said last month that they had started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to assess the effectiveness of their vaccine against Covid-19 in healthy pregnant women. The study will also assess whether pregnant transfer protective antibodies to their children.