--- title: "Doctors: Woman Passed COVID Vaccine Immunity to Her Newborn Baby" description: "A woman in south Florida who was recently vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant may have passed on her COVID antibodies to her newborn baby." date: "2021-03-17" modified: "2021-03-17" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/woman-passed-covid-vaccine-immunity-newborn-baby" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "moderna" - "vaccines" --- # Doctors: Woman Passed COVID Vaccine Immunity to Her Newborn Baby ![A woman in south Florida who was recently vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant may have passed on her COVID antibodies to her newborn baby.]() *\Image: lunar caustic via Flickr/Futurism\* Here's a dose of promising news. Scientists have found that a woman in south Florida who was recently vaccinated with one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant passed on her COVID antibodies to her newborn baby, [*The Guardian* reports](). According to the team's findings, as detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed [preprint](), the mother, who is a frontline healthcare worker, received her first shot of the Moderna vaccine back in January. She was 36 weeks pregnant at the time. She gave birth to a girl three weeks after that first shot. An analysis of her baby's blood showed that the COVID-19 antibodies were present a the time of delivery, according to the paper. "Thus, there is potential for protection and infection risk reduction from SARS-CoV-2 with maternal vaccination," concluded the research team from Florida Atlantic University. The team says it marks the "first known case of an infant with SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies detectable in cord blood after maternal vaccination." "We tested the baby’s cord to see if the antibodies in the mother passed to the baby which is something, we see happen with other vaccines given during pregnancy," pediatrician Paul Gilbert, lead author, [told local ABC-affiliated news outlet *WPBF*]() earlier this week. "This is one small case in what will be thousands and thousands of babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated of the next several months," co-author Chad Rudnick added. Some questions remain, however. "Further studies have to determine how long will this protection last," Rudnick told *WPBF*. "They have to determine at what level of protection or how many antibodies does a baby need to have circulating in order to give them protection." ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()