Woman gives birth to 'first known baby' with Covid-19 antibodies

A woman in the United States has reportedly given birth to the first known baby born with Covid-19 antibodies after she received one dose of coronavirus vaccine during her pregnancy.

The baby girl not yet known by her name was born in South Florida and two doctors who have submitted a research paper regarding it have made the claim.

Drs Paul Gilbert and Chad Rudnick said the mother, a frontline healthcare worker, received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine in January, at 36 weeks pregnant.

The woman gave birth to a “vigorous, healthy” girl three weeks later.

After the baby was born, doctors took a blood sample from her umbilical cord and tested it to see if the antibodies in the mother passed to the baby, which is something they’ve seen happen with other vaccines given during pregnancy, Gilbert said as later the blood test revealed she had the COVID-19 antibodies.

“Thus, there is potential for protection and infection risk reduction from Sars-CoV-2 with maternal vaccination.”

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It is pertinent to mention here that a study has found that pregnant women who are vaccinated against the virus could pass along protection to their babies.

“Our findings highlight that vaccination of pregnant women may provide maternal and neonatal protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the study said, but authors noted the small size of the study and said further research would be necessary to determine how long this protection would last.

Last month, according to a report, Pfizer-BioNTech said it would enroll about 4,000 pregnant women in a clinical trial to study the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine in them. The women were to be monitored for negative side effects, including miscarriage.