Yep, a mom's COVID shot during pregnancy protects her baby, a large study finds

Key Points:

• Babies under 6 months old face high COVID-19 hospitalization rates, but no vaccine is currently available for this age group, prompting ACOG to recommend COVID vaccination during pregnancy to protect newborns through antibody transfer.
• A new large-scale Norwegian study of over 140,000 infants confirms that maternal COVID vaccination reduces infants' risk of COVID-related hospital visits in the first five months of life without increasing the risk of other infections.
• The study found that vaccinated mothers' babies were about half as likely to be hospitalized for COVID in the first two months and had a 24% lower risk from 3 to 5 months, though protection waned after 6 months.
• Increased doctor visits among infants of vaccinated mothers likely reflect differing health-seeking behaviors rather than biological effects of the vaccine, with no evidence supporting claims that maternal vaccination causes immune dysregulation or increased infections.
• The research supports prior recommendations by medical organizations for COVID vaccination during pregnancy, counters misinformation by some vaccine policy critics, and was conducted independently without pharmaceutical funding.