The fake news about anti-Covid-19 vaccination is numerous… and sometimes totally ridiculous. Latest false information to date: it would be risky to breastfeed your baby after being vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
For once, the erroneous information comes from a real scientific study, published this Monday, September 26, 2022 in the specialized journal Jama Pediatrics. This was conducted with 11 breastfeeding women; among them, 6 were vaccinated against Covid-19 with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and 5 with the Moderna vaccine. Participants were instructed to collect and store their milk in the freezer before vaccination and then repeatedly for 5 days after vaccination.
Result ? After vaccination, researchers at NYU Long Island School of Medicine (in the United States) identified traces of messenger RNA in 7 milk samples from 5 women participating in the study. These particles (which averaged 9.1 per 100 mL of milk, and measured approximately 110 nanometers in diameter) were observed in breast milk up to 45 hours after injection of the vaccine.
Vaccination of a breastfeeding woman can help protect her baby against Covid-19
Does this mean that breastfed children consume messenger RNA after their mother’s vaccination? Not necessarily, according to French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT)which relayed another study carried out this year in Singapore with 35 breastfeeding women: “none of the children tested had mRNA in their blood, likely due to degradation in the digestive system“.
Furthermore, the amount of mRNA particles identified in this new study is really very low: “the equivalent of a drop of water in an Olympic swimming pool” illustrated Dr. Victoria Male, specialist in immunology at Imperial College London (in the United Kingdom). The expert adds that after 48 hours, no trace of mRNA was observable in the breast milk tested. .
Can you get vaccinated against Covid-19 while breastfeeding your baby? For the health authorities (which are based on several serious scientific studies), there is no problem. Better: the antibodies directed against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (type A and IgG) could be transmitted to the breastfed baby via breast milk… and therefore protect him effectively against this disease with potentially serious consequences.
