News Scan for Jun 23, 2022

Data show moderate protection in infants born to COVID-vaccinated momsMaternal COVID vaccination during pregnancy provides 52% protection against COVID-19 hospitalization in infants but only 38% protection against Omicron hospitalization, according to a study yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.Protection against an intensive care unit (ICU) stay, however, was 70%.The case-control study included 537 case infants (181 hospitalized for COVID-19 during the Delta period and 356 during Omicron) and 512 control infants who did not have COVID.

The median age of both groups was 2 months, and 19% of the case infants and 24% of the control infants had at least one underlying health condition.Among the case infants, 113 (21%) required intensive care, 64 of whom received mechanical ventilation or vasoactive infusions.

Two infants born to unvaccinated mothers died from COVID-19.The researchers determined that the effectiveness of maternal vaccination with two doses of mRNA vaccine against hospitalization for COVID-19 in infants overall was 52% (95% confidence interval [CI], 33% to 65%), but fell from 80% (95% CI, 60% to 90%) during Delta to 38% (95% CI, 8% to 58%) during Omicron.

Effectiveness was 69% (95% CI, 50% to 80%) for vaccination after 20 weeks of pregnancy and 38% (95% CI, 3% to 60%) for earlier in the pregnancy.Protection was 70% (95% CI, 42% to 85%) against admission to an ICU and 47% (95% CI, 25% to 62%) against non-ICU hospitalization.In a related editorial, Sonja Rasmussen, MD, from the University of Florida, and Denise Jamieson, MD, MPH, from Emory University, said, "This evidence that Covid-19 vaccines help to protect infants as well as mothers is highly relevant for patient counseling: a 'two-for-one'