COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women could protect babies, Israeli researchers say

Pregnant women vaccinated against COVID-19 could pass along protection to their babies, according to a new study in Israel.

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

"Our findings highlight that vaccination of pregnant women may provide maternal and neonatal protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection," the study said.

The findings by researchers from Jerusalem's Hadassah- University Medical Center were posted this month on medRxiv – an online distribution service for unpublished research manuscripts that have not been peer-reviewed – and reported by Israeli media on Tuesday.

The authors noted the small size of the study and said further research was necessary to gauge the effect of vaccination at different stages of pregnancy, and the safety and efficacy of the different vaccines now available.

One of the researchers, Dana Wolf, was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying the group will now start looking at how long the antibodies triggered by the vaccinations will last in the babies.
Australia’s policy performance on COVID-19 in 2020 was world-leading in terms of both public health and economics. Sadly, our vaccine roll-out strategy has been anything but.

I’ve spent plenty of time highlighting this in recent months. But perhaps the most instructive thing to do is compare and contrast Australia’s back-of-the-pack performance with Israel’s – which is truly world-class.

Israel has shown a sense of urgency with its vaccine strategy and roll-out.

The country has gone from having a large infection rate – including from highly contagious variants of COVID-19 – to having herd immunity within its reach. This, in turn, has allowed it to open up the economy with all the benefits that flow from that.

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Australia has a lot to learn.

Israel’s roll-out
Just a few months ago, in mid-January, Israel had the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the world.

Now, as the following chart shows, the number of infections is less than a quarter the level recorded on January 17.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said last month they had started a 4,000-volunteer international study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women.

This is clearly due to Israel’s vaccination program, which began on December 19, 2020 – just ten days after the first Pfizer doses arrived in the country.

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Israel was well ahead of most countries in signing a purchase agreement for Moderna’s high-efficacy mRNA vaccine in June 2020. Later in 2020 it made more deals with Pfizer (which also produces a very high-efficacy vaccine) and AstraZeneca.

The trial will also assess whether vaccinated pregnant women transfer protective antibodies to their babies.

A separate US study posted last week and also awaiting peer review, found that the antibodies induced in pregnant women from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots, were transferred to the babies via the placenta or breast milk.