First Baby With COVID-19 Antibodies Born
Coronavirus

First Baby With COVID-19 Antibodies Born

COVID-19 has been raging across the world for more than a year now, but as vaccine rollout continues, things are finally looking up. WBPF Newsin Florida reports that the first infant with COVID-19 antibodies has been born.

Two local pediatricians, Dr. Paul Gilbert and Dr. Chad Rudnick, confirmed the news. "To our knowledge, this was the first in the world that was reported of a baby being born with antibodies after a vaccination," Gilbert said.

The mother of the child is a front-line healthcare worker who was 36 weeks pregnant when she was given her first dose of the Moderna vaccine.Three weeks later, the baby girl was born and a blood sample was taken.

"We tested the baby's cord to see if the antibodies in the mother passed to the baby which is something we see happen with other vaccines given during pregnancy," Gilbert said. The test confirmed that the infant had COVID-19 antibodies.

According to Rudnick, these results will be instrumental in figuring out the best ways to protect children from the deadly virus.

"This is one small case in what will be thousands and thousands of babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated for the next several months," said Rudnick. "Further studies have to determine how long this protection will last. They have to determine at what level of protection or how many antibodies a baby needs to have circulating in order to give them protection."

There's still a ways to go for this development, but more studies are being conducted to understand how the vaccine impacts pregnant women. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE recently announced that they are launching a 4,000-volunteer internal study that focuses specifically on this.

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