Pregnant women transfer fewer antibodies to male fetuses

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Pregnant women transfer fewer antibodies to male fetuses - Poynter

Plus, a look at COVID internationally, FDA to consider vaccines for younger children this week, what 'fully vaccinated' means now, and more.

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lus, a look at COVID internationally, FDA to consider vaccines for younger children this week, what 'fully vaccinated' means now, and more.

A pregnant woman gets a Pfizer vaccine shot for COVID-19 at a library converted into a vaccination center in Mexico City, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)





By: Al Tompkins


October 25, 2021

Covering COVID-19 is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas about the coronavirus and other timely topics for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

True breakthroughs are rare in the world of medicine. We tend to learn things in tiny pieces at a time. In that vein, this discovery could be useful. A new study found that pregnant women carrying baby boys have fewer coronavirus antibodies than those carrying girls.

“So what?” you may ask. The finding may help scientists discover why male immune systems react differently from those of females. As always, keep in mind this is a small study sample of 38 women who were infected with COVID-19 during pregnancy. When the babies were born, scientists noted “striking differences” in “placental transfer of antibodies to male and female infants.” That means girls born to COVID-infected mothers tended to have significantly more antibodies at birth.

Also interesting, the women themselves were affected. The women carrying boys had fewer antibodies than the women who gave birth to girls.

Yahoo News explains:

“There’s obviously some crosstalk that’s happening between the fetus and mother’s immune system,” Andrea Edlow, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who co-led the study, told Insider.

The findings may hint at broader differences in how men and women respond to COVID-19. Male fetuses seemed to develop an inflammatory response to the virus that wasn’t detected among female fetuses. Edlow said that inflammation may be interfering with a mother’s ability to pass coronavirus antibodies to her unborn baby boy.

This is a clue, not an answer, about why COVID-19 seems to affect men more severely than women. Our very response to the COVID-19 virus may begin before birth. Yahoo continues:

Indeed, men represent the majority of COVID-19 deaths in the US (54%), despite making up the minority of recorded COVID-19 cases (48%). This pattern holds true across multiple age groups.

“There is a lot that has been written about how the male fetus — and maybe this extends later into male life — lives dangerously on the edge of inflammation, sort of skating by with just the right amount,” Edlow said.

“I don’t think that can fully explain the sex bias in COVID,” she added, “but it does give us some hints into male immunity in general that starts in utero.”

COVID sends Russia into lockdown, Australia opens up, Britain worries. What does this mean to Americans?

An aerial view shows fresh graves at the Yastrebkovskoe cemetery, which serves as one of the burial grounds for those who died of the coronavirus, outside in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

I know that most journalists reading this column work in local and national news, so I want to explain why I am pushing you to stay attuned to how COVID-19 is affecting other countries.

Pandemics force countries to think outside of their isolation and understand viruses do not recognize borders. If we have learned nothing else in the last nearly two years, we have learned that we can predict what is heading to America’s shores by watching what unfolds in Europe and Asia — and there is plenty to pay attention to this week.

Moscow’s mayor is ordering all unvaccinated persons over age 60 to stay home for four months. Read that again, four MONTHS. In addition, Moscow just ordered a 10-day lockdown for everyone. From Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, the entire country will observe “non-working days” so people can stay home. Less than half of the country is vaccinated and Russia is only allowing Russian-made vaccines, not any of the Western vaccines that have proven to be effective and safe.


(Moscow Times)

Over the weekend, the British medical world kept up loud criticism of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reluctance to order new requirements for vaccinations and social distancing as that country’s infection rate spikes for a third time.

Australia is now lifting some restrictions. Melbourne media call what they have been through “the world’s longest lockdown” and 70% of the population is fully vaccinated. The country is lifting lockdown rules even while the number of new cases is near record highs and expected to grow when people start moving around again. But the tiny downward movement in the last week was enough to encourage leaders to say “enough.”


(CNN)

CNN explains:

Victoria’s 6.7 million residents can now leave their homes for any reason, though they’ll need to show proof of full vaccination to enter public venues. Restaurants can cater for limited numbers of diners indoors, students are back in schools, and there’s no longer a 9 p.m. curfew in Melbourne.

However, stores selling non-essential goods won’t open until 80% of the state is double vaccinated and masks are required inside and out.

Still, the end of the lockdown is a huge relief for Melbourne residents who have spent more than 260 days confined to their homes, forbidden to leave except to buy groceries or other essential items, mostly in two long stretches from July to October, 2020 and August to October this year.

FDA considers vaccines for younger children this week
Tomorrow, the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee known as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets to consider Pfizer’s application to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11. The data that the committee got over the weekend says the vaccine is more than 90% effective at protecting children from symptomatic COVID-19.

Pfizer’s drug trials involved 2,250 children. No cases of the heart inflammation known as myocarditis were reported two months after the second vaccination, which was administered three weeks after the first.

As Pfizer puts it:

• Although the mortality rate for COVID-19 in children is substantially lower than that in adults, COVID-19 was among the top 10 leading causes of death for children 5 to 14 years of age between January and May 2021 in the US.
• There have been 1.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases among children 5-12.
• At least 143 of those children died of COVID-19 through October 14th, 2021.
• 8,622 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 through late September.
• Some children so suffer from long-term effects, just as adults do.

If the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve this pediatric vaccine, the White House plans to aggressively start the vaccination program focusing on doctor’s offices and pharmacies rather than big vaccination centers as have been used by adults.
Do you have to be boosted to be ‘fully vaccinated’ now?
The CDC may change its definition of “fully vaccinated” one day soon to include getting two doses of the vaccine and a follow-up booster shot. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the CDC may need to “update” its definition. The current definition of full vaccination is, “Fully vaccinated persons are those who are ≥14 days post-completion of the primary series of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.”

The definition matters because of mandates that require people to be fully vaccinated to work some jobs or attend classes.
The easiest booster chart yet
After all of the conversations, studies and confusions, this may help the public understand the choices. The key message seems to be that all of the boosters work well. Go get one.

(CDC)

The chart does not say it, but the data shows that for people who got a Johnson & Johnson shot, a Moderna booster seems to generate the best defense.

Epidemiologist Dr. Katelyn Jetelina summarizes:

After the primary Moderna series, there was equal benefit from either a Moderna or Pfizer booster. After the primary Pfizer series, the greatest benefit was from a Moderna booster. But Pfizer boosters generate antibodies too.