By Ana Espinosa | March 16, 2021 at 1:36 PM EDT – Updated March 16 at 1:36 PM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. (WPBF) – Doctors say a pregnant health worker who received the COVID-19 vaccine has passed those antibodies to her newborn.
It’s the first-known case and a potentially important development in the fight against coronavirus.
“To our knowledge, this was the first in the world that was reported of a baby being born with antibodies after a vaccination,” said pediatrician Paul Gilbert.
A frontline healthcare worker was 36 weeks pregnant when she was given the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.
A baby girl was born three weeks later near the end of January and a blood sample was taken.
“We tested … the baby’s blood, 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 results showed the baby had COVID-19 antibodies.
“This is one small case in what will be thousands and thousands of babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated over the next several months,” pediatrician Chad Rudnick said.
Still, the Florida pediatricians say there are some factors that indicate newborns born to vaccinated mothers will remain at risk for infection.
“Further studies have to determine how long this protection will last,” said Rudnick. “They have to determine at what level of protection or how many antibodies does a baby need to have circulating in order to give them protection.”
The doctors’ paper has been accepted for publication as well and they are just waiting for a medical journal to put it on their site.
Scientists are still learning about how the vaccine interacts with women who are pregnant.
Some pharmaceutical companies have started to include pregnant women in their studies of the vaccine.
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