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Research Brief: Number of babies born with CMV declined during pandemic
https://med.umn.edu/news-events/research-brief-number-babies-born-cmv-declined-during-pandemicMINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (09/06/2022) — Published in JAMA, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers discovered the number of babies born in Minnesota with cytomegalovirus (CMV) decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that in the five-year period leading up to the pandemic, about one baby in every 200 births was born with CMV. Between August 2020 and December 2021, the number decreased to one baby in every 1,000 births.
"At last, something positive came out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Schleiss, principal investigator of the study and a pediatric infectious disease specialist and professor in the U of M Medical School. “The hygienic precautions we all have engaged in during the pandemic — masking, hand-washing and infection prevention behaviors — were almost certainly responsible for the reduction in CMV transmission, which in turn protected mothers and newborns from the potentially devastating effects of the CMV virus.”
CMV is the most common virus that causes birth defects and disabilities in newborns.
"At last, something positive came out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Mark Schleiss, principal investigator of the study and a pediatric infectious disease specialist and professor in the U of M Medical School. “The hygienic precautions we all have engaged in during the pandemic — masking, hand-washing and infection prevention behaviors — were almost certainly responsible for the reduction in CMV transmission, which in turn protected mothers and newborns from the potentially devastating effects of the CMV virus.”
CMV is the most common virus that causes birth defects and disabilities in newborns.
[snip]
The silver lining.
Edited to add link to CDC page about CMV: https://www.cdc.gov/cmv/congenital-infection.html
5 replies
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Maybe because the mothers were vaccinated before or during pregnancy?
I don't know, but it's worth looking into this.
"Masks don't work!" 
