• Infant insight: A new study found that infants born to COVID-19 vaccinated mothers showed a “significantly greater” antibody response at 6 months compared to babies born to COVID-infected mothers—an important insight given that infants under 6 months are not yet eligible for the vaccine. JAMA  2/8/22

• NIH-funded study suggests COVID-19 increases risk of pregnancy complications. Pregnant women with COVID-19 appear to be at greater risk for common pregnancy complications — in addition to health risks from the virus — than pregnant women without COVID-19, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study, which included nearly 2,400 pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2, found that those with moderate to severe infection were more likely to have a cesarean delivery, to deliver preterm, to die around the time of birth, or to experience serious illness from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, or from infection other than SARS-CoV-2. They were also more likely to lose the pregnancy or to have an infant die during the newborn period. Mild or asymptomatic infection was not associated with increased pregnancy risks.

• New research suggests the coronavirus can invade and destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths in infected women. It's an uncommon outcome for any pregnancy but women with COVID-19 face an elevated risk. Authorities believe vaccination can help prevent these cases. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in November found that among pregnant U.S. women infected with COVID-19, about 1 in 80 deliveries was a stillbirth — the loss of a fetus anytime after 20 weeks. That’s compared with 1 in 155 among uninfected women. It is unclear whether omicron infections also increase chances for stillbirths; the study was done before that highly infectious variant emerged.  Associated Press – 2/11/22

Bunker Babies. 

Many children under five years old have been "bunker babies" for almost two years. Learning to talk during this extraordinary time, one of a baby's first words may be “mask.” Whether this early-childhood pandemic experience will herald long-term mental health, development, or academic consequences depends on each family’s individual challenges, says James Griffin, who heads the at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). “We're all in the same storm, but we're not in the same boat.”

Unless there are deficits in care or a stressful family environment, extra time at home may have benefitted the very young. For babies, caregivers are their whole world, and their greatest need is responsive, sensitive care. “There's really no indication that their social development is going to be impacted at all,” says Seth Pollak, a psychologist and brain scientist who studies child development at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Until around age two, kids don't really play with other kids,” he says. They engage in what psychologists call parallel play, sitting in proximity, often with similar toys, but playing independently. By age three, play becomes more imaginative, and most kids crave time with friends.  National Geographic

Epidemiology is the science at center of public health.

The CDC has updated its guidance for some people with weakened immune systems to receive a booster three months after completing the initial series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine instead of the current interval of five months.

^{Covid-19 vaccination schedule for people with moderate or severe immunocompromise
published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.}

The CDC estimates that about 2.7 percent of adults — 7 million people — are immunocompromised, a group that includes patients with medical conditions that weaken their immune response, as well as people taking immune-suppressing drugs because of organ transplants, cancer or autoimmune diseases. Also on the list are people with advanced or untreated HIV infections, and those who have chronic medical conditions that can weaken immune response, such as chronic kidney disease.  Washington Post, 2/11/2022

50.9  &  24.9
52.2  &  24.4
61.9  &  24.1
43.2  &  21.3

^{cumulative total as of 02/13/22}  

Resources

• Building Bridges. Bridging statements can be an effective communications tool to stay grounded in core messages and build trust with fact-based messaging. The Public Health Communications Collaborative has created a new resource on how to use bridging statements effectively to build trust, acknowledge and answer tough questions, and combat misinformation in your communities. Download the Building Bridges resource here.

• How do you know how many days to quarantine or isolate when you have been exposed to or tested positive for COVID-19?  VDH has created a new tool, the Quarantine Calculator, that lets you determine what to do and create a plan to isolate or quarantine. This tool is designed to help people identify a specific date to test after close contact and a specific date to end isolation after a positive test or symptoms. Check it out at VDH Isolation and Quarantine website.