Pregnant individuals who had a previous COVID-19 infection and received a full course of COVID-19 vaccination and a booster have the strongest immune protection from the disease – and pass that protection along to their unborn babies, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine and The Rockefeller University investigators.
The researchers, whose study published Aug. 10 in Nature Communications, examined pregnant patients who either had a history of vaccination or infection or both. They found that patients who had a history of vaccination with a booster and a previous infection had the highest neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19 variants including omicron.
The findings suggest that a patient’s hybrid immunity, plus booster, provides the strongest protection for both patient and the unborn baby. This is significant because pregnant people can help protect themselves and their unborn child by getting boosted if they haven’t already, said study co-senior author Dr. Yawei Jenny Yang, who was an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a pathologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center at the time she conducted the research.
