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One of the many big questions scientists are trying to untangle is whether people who get Covid-19 during pregnancy will pass on some natural immunity to their newborns. Recent studies have hinted that they might. And new findings, published Friday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, provide another piece of the puzzle, offering more evidence that Covid-19 antibodies can cross the placenta. (Caron, 1/29)

Because placental antibody transfer begins at about 17 weeks of gestation and rises exponentially from then on, vaccinating mothers early in the second trimester might be optimal to achieving high antibody levels in newborns, she said. "While a serologic correlate of protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic or severe disease is unknown at this time, higher antibody levels might result in a better chance for protection of the newborn during a period of special vulnerability," said Flor Munoz, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 1/29)

An international survey of 183 pediatric patients with the rare but serious COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) shows broad clinical presentations, from mild illness featuring fever and inflammation to life-threatening shock similar to that of Kawasaki disease (KD).The study, led by researchers at Royal Brompton Hospital in London and published today in Pediatrics, was a retrospective case series of children younger than 18 years diagnosed as having MIS-C who were released from the hospital or died from Mar 1 to Jun 15, 2020, from 33 hospitals in American, Asian, and European countries. (1/29)

Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said on Friday during a White House coronavirus briefing that he would like to see vaccines against the disease extended to children within the next few months. “Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,” Fauci said. (Lonas, 1/29)