Hadassah Preliminary Covid-19 Study Shows Promising Results

Babies born to vaccinated mums have COVID-fighting antibodies

A team at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem checked blood from the umbilical cords of 40 newborns whose mothers had been vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech, and found that all had a strong supply of antibodies, suggesting they are born with immunity to coronavirus.

‘’In our study, we found immunoglobulin G antibodies that are active against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which basically block the entry of the virus to cells. This follows research which suggests that great milk has another type of antibodies, Immunoglobulin A.

From looking at the blood we have found that vaccinated women, all of whom were given both shots in the third trimester, had very high antibody levels, and more importantly that there is an efficient transfer of the antibodies from the mother to the fetus via the placenta.

This is an important finding that is reassuring, suggesting that vaccinated mothers pass COVID-19 protection to their babies before they are born’’

Prof. Dana Wolf, Head of Hadassah’s Virology Department

Prof. Wolf said that the research has not established with certainty that the antibodies deliver protection against infection, but she strongly believes they will. There is, she noted, no information on how long the babies will retain their antibodies, or any protection they may provide.

This research was conducted with Prof. Wolf and her colleagues from Hadassah’s Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, including Amihai Rottenstreich and Shay Potrat.

This is believed to be the largest study of its kind, the researchers believe that the find vindicates health officials’ call to pregnant women to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. And with the world constantly looking to Israel for new data on the impact of vaccines, the finding is likely to have strong international resonance.

Editor’s Notes

Click here to read the full story, which originally appeared in the Times of Israel.

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