Estimating the Effectiveness of Shielding during Pregnancy against SARS-CoV-2 in New York City during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Siyu Chen; Elisabeth A Murphy; Angeline G Pendergrass; Ashley C Sukhu; Dorothy Eng; Magdalena Jurkiewicz; Iman Mohammed; Sophie Rand; Lisa J White; Nathaniel Hupert; Yawei J Yang

doi:10.3390/v14112408

Estimating the Effectiveness of Shielding during Pregnancy against SARS-CoV-2 in New York City during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Viruses. 2022 Oct 30;14(11):2408. doi: 10.3390/v14112408.

Authors

Siyu Chen¹, Elisabeth A Murphy², Angeline G Pendergrass³, Ashley C Sukhu⁴, Dorothy Eng⁴, Magdalena Jurkiewicz⁴, Iman Mohammed⁵, Sophie Rand², Lisa J White¹, Nathaniel Hupert^{1

6

7}, Yawei J Yang^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK.
² Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
³ Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
⁴ New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁶ Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.

Abstract

Pregnant patients have increased morbidity and mortality in the setting of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The exposure of pregnant patients in New York City to SARS-CoV-2 is not well understood due to early lack of access to testing and the presence of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections. Before the availability of vaccinations, preventative (shielding) measures, including but not limited to wearing a mask and quarantining at home to limit contact, were recommended for pregnant patients. Using universal testing data from 2196 patients who gave birth from April through December 2020 from one institution in New York City, and in comparison, with infection data of the general population in New York City, we estimated the exposure and real-world effectiveness of shielding in pregnant patients. Our Bayesian model shows that patients already pregnant at the onset of the pandemic had a 50% decrease in exposure compared to those who became pregnant after the onset of the pandemic and to the general population.

Keywords: Bayesian inference; New York City; SARS-CoV-2; dynamic model; effectiveness; pregnant women; shielding during pregnancy.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bayes Theorem
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Female
Humans
New York City / epidemiology
Pandemics
Pregnancy
SARS-CoV-2*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by an internal Weill Cornell Medicine COVID-19 Research Grant [Y.J.Y], the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine [Y.J.Y.], The Bender Foundation, Inc. [Y.J.Y], the Li Ka Shing Foundation [L.J.W], and the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 Research Response Fund [L.J.W]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.