COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy protects infants

Women who receive an MRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination or booster during pregnancy can provide their infants with strong protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection for at least six months after birth, according to a new study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

An earlier study revealed that when pregnant volunteers received both doses of an MRNA COVID-19 vaccine, antibodies induced by the vaccine could be found in their newborns' cord blood. This suggested that the infants likely had some protection against COVID-19 when they were still too young to receive a vaccine, the NIH said in a release on Wednesday.