Covid-19 vaccines may have PREVENTED thousands of premature births

Thousands of premature births may have been prevented by Covid vaccines, a new study suggests.

Despite widespread misinformation about the vaccines causing fertility problems, researchers in California linked the shots to a 78 percent decrease in premature births among expectant mothers infected with the virus.

They analyzed data on millions of births recorded in the state between 2014 and 2022 and found a spike in premature births in 2020 – when the virus first spread in the US.

The study attributed this to Covid infections in pregnant women, which increase the risk of premature birth due to inflammation and stress due to infection.

But by 2022, the rate of premature births had returned to pre-pandemic levels – following the rollout of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

The jabs are thought to have triggered the mother’s immune system to recognize and attack the virus early in an infection, reducing the risk of serious illness.

Expectant mothers infected with Covid had at least a 60 per cent higher risk of preterm birth – or the birth of a child before 37 weeks’ gestation – in the early stages of the pandemic compared to those who were not infected, research shows to suggest.

Expectant mothers are more vulnerable to serious infections because their immune systems are weaker during pregnancy.

Scientists suggest Covid also increases the risk of premature birth as it could trigger a ‘cytokine storm’.

This is an overreaction of the immune system, causing the body to attack healthy tissue.

About one in 10 children in the U.S. are born prematurely — or before 37 weeks’ gestation — studies show.

In many cases, young people experience no adverse effects. But those born prematurely are at greater risk of complications, including infections, asthma and developmental delays.

Researchers analyzed data from California because the state had been tracking whether expectant mothers had been infected with Covid since June 2020 on birth certificates.

Whenever possible, mothers were tested for the virus before being admitted to one of the state’s 400 hospitals or birth centers.

There are an average of 400,000 births per year in California, which is similar to many countries – and allows the results to be generalized worldwide.

The results showed that a mother’s risk of preterm birth increased by 78 percent in 2020 for those infected with Covid (or increased from 6.9 to 12.3 percent of all preterm births).

In 2021, the rate increase has shifted again by 4.1 percent due to the arrival of the heavier Delta variant.

But by 2022, the virus had fallen back to pre-pandemic levels, due to the large vaccine rollout, rising infections and the emergence of the milder Omicron variant.

In areas where vaccine uptake was higher, scientists found that premature births among Covid-infected mothers fell a year earlier than in areas with low vaccination rates.

California began rolling out the Covid vaccine on December 14, 2020, and also began distributing the shots to pregnant women in July 2021.

As of December 2022, 84 percent of California residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Jenna Nobles, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who led the study, said: ‘In zip codes with the highest vaccination rates, the excess risk of preterm birth declines much more quickly.

‘By summer 2021, having Covid during pregnancy had no effect on the risk of preterm birth in these communities.

‘In the postal codes with the lowest vaccination rate, this takes almost a year longer.

‘That underlines how protective Covid vaccines have been. By increasing immunity more quickly, early vaccination has likely prevented thousands of premature births in the US.”

Vaccines activated immunity against the virus by allowing the immune system to fight the infection and prevent serious illness.

But infections early in the pandemic also likely helped, scientists said, because they also taught younger women’s immune systems how to fight the virus.