COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy Protects the Infant and Is Safe for the Mother

Expanded approval for COVID-19 vaccines permits immunization of children as young as 6 months, the last remaining group without such option for protection from SARS-CoV-2. Vaccination has also been recommended for pregnant women, primarily due to the recognition that such women are at excess risk for complications from the virus (NEJM JW Infect Dis Mar 2022 and PLoS Med 2021 Nov 30; NEJM JW Mar 15 2022 and JAMA 2022 Feb 7; [e-pub]).

In a multicenter, case-control study conducted during the Delta and Omicron waves, Halasa et al. examined the impact of maternal vaccination during pregnancy on infant hospitalization for COVID-19. They assessed 537 hospitalized infants aged <6 months with symptomatic COVID-19 compared with 512 hospitalized contr…