Nicole Fahey, who is six months pregnant, receives the Pfizer vaccine shot from a nurse on November 3, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images Hide Caption
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The mothers of nearly 90% of infants who had to be hospitalized with COVID-19 did not receive vaccines during pregnancy, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infants too young to be vaccinated had the highest coronavirus hospitalization rate of any age group except those over 75.
Infants cannot be vaccinated against the coronavirus until they are at least 6 months old. Dr. Neil Silverman, director of the Infectious Diseases in Pregnancy Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said this leaves a “huge window” when infants are most vulnerable.
The only way to effectively protect your baby during these six months is to vaccinate the pregnant woman so that her antibodies can be passed on to the newborn. Vaccination during pregnancy protects pregnant people from serious illness.
This study emphasizes that vaccination of pregnant people is very important. It’s also consistent with what doctors have been reporting anecdotally for more than three years. In other words, people are still skeptical about coronavirus vaccines because of persistent misinformation.
The study was based on health data from 12 states collected from October 2022 to April 2024, and the results were published in the agency’s publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). ” is published.
The report found that among the 1,470 infants who became ill enough to be hospitalized due to COVID-19, severe outcomes occurred “frequently.”
Excluding newborns hospitalized at birth, about one in five infants hospitalized with coronavirus required intensive care, and nearly one in 20 required a ventilator.
“These babies are not necessarily babies with high-risk disease,” says UCLA’s Silverman. “These are full-term, healthy newborns who happened to be infected with the coronavirus and ended up on ventilators in the hospital.”
Despite the risks, many pregnant patients remain hesitant
But persistent misinformation about the vaccine online has led to widespread skepticism among pregnant patients.
“The most frustrating response I’ve gotten from people is that we need to do more research before considering getting the COVID-19 vaccine,” Silverman said. “We have numerous studies showing the safety of mRNA vaccines. We don’t know how much more research we can provide to skeptics.”
Of the 1,000 infants hospitalized with coronavirus, the median age was just two months old, according to the report. Nine of the infants died.
Deborah Greenhouse, a pediatrician in South Carolina, said she plans to share the research with the families she cares for. “There’s absolutely a percentage of the population that looks at this and says, oh, I should get the vaccine, so maybe I can protect my baby,” she said.
“I think if we could actually show the hospitalization numbers, the intensive care numbers, the ventilator numbers, that might help convince some parents. These are big issues,” Greenhouse said. said.
Doctors should stock vaccinations and discuss them
At Greenhouse, we often wait until a parent in the office confirms they are pregnant before discussing the latest COVID-19 vaccinations. Now she is reconsidering that strategy and may try to discuss vaccinations with all parents who bring their children to visitation.
“We have an opportunity to step in and educate them and make them understand how important this is,” she said.
Silverman said doctors can encourage vaccination by making it as easy and simple as possible. He encouraged his fellow doctors to offer shots in their offices instead of sending patients to pharmacies or other health care providers.
“If someone has to leave the office to get vaccinated, they’re probably going to lose 30 to 40 percent of their opportunity to get vaccinated,” Silverman said.
But offering coronavirus vaccinations at clinics could force some doctors to make difficult calculations.
If doctors overestimate the number of patients interested in a vaccine, they may not be able to fully refund excess doses and may incur a loss. Meanwhile, we want to have enough doses on hand to vaccinate all vulnerable patients who want to be vaccinated.
This article is part of a health reporting partnership between NPR and KFF Health News.
