"Pregnant Women Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine Develop Antibodies in Their Babies"

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] A study has found that when pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine, their babies are born with COVID-19 antibodies.

According to Israeli media, on the 17th (local time), researchers at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem tested 40 newborns born to women vaccinated against COVID-19 during pregnancy and confirmed that they possessed sufficient levels of immune antibodies.

Blood samples for the study were taken from the newborns' umbilical cords. The vaccine administered to the pregnant women was the Pfizer-BioNTech product.

Dana Wolf, head of the virus department at Hadassah Medical Center and lead researcher of the study, explained, "We identified immune globulins reacting to the spike protein of the COVID-19 pathogen (in the newborns)." She said that although it has not yet been confirmed whether the antibodies inherited by the babies prevent COVID-19 infection, she is confident they serve that function. However, it is known that this study did not include how long the babies maintain the antibodies.

Initially, COVID-19 vaccination was not recommended for pregnant women, but Israel allowed vaccination for pregnant women starting mid-January.

Meanwhile, in the United States, there have also been reports of antibodies detected in babies born to vaccinated pregnant women.

According to The Guardian, a healthcare worker in southern Florida, who was 36 weeks pregnant, received one dose of the Moderna vaccine in January and gave birth to a baby girl three weeks later. Pediatricians Paul Gilbert and Chad Rudnick analyzed blood from the baby's umbilical cord and reported that COVID-19 antibodies were detected.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.