Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines produce robust immune responses in pregnant and lactating people and likely provide some protection against two virus variants, according to preliminary results from two continuing studies cited by The New York Times.
For the first study, published May 13 in JAMA, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, studied blood samples from 103 women who had received either Pfizer or Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine between December 2020 and March 2021. At the time of their vaccinations, 30 of the women were pregnant, 16 were lactating and 57 were neither pregnant nor lactating. The vaccines produced similar responses in all three groups of women, the Times reported.
The study also found that protective antibodies can be passed to fetuses through the bloodstream and to infants through breast milk.
For the second study, published May 11 in Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers from Northwestern University and the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, both in Chicago, examined placentas from 200 people who gave birth between April 2020 and April 2021, the Times reported. Eighty-four people had received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine during pregnancy, while the rest didn't receive any vaccine.
The study found the placentas from vaccinated people were not any more likely to show signs of injury or abnormality than those from unvaccinated people, the Times reported.
COVID-19 presents serious risks during pregnancy, according to the Times. Pregnant people with COVID-19 are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit, require mechanical ventilation and to die from the virus compared to people of a similar age who are not pregnant.
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