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Arizona finished its “audit.” Other states are just getting started.

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Arizona’s spurious <a href="https://www.vox.com/22417310/arizona-audit-ballots-cyber-ninjas-uv-lights-qanon-conspiracy-theory-vote-suppression-fraud">election “audit”</a> concluded on Friday, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/">confirming</a> yet again that President Joe Biden won Maricopa County and the state of Arizona — but not putting an end to former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, which are now fueling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1039451858/republican-led-election-reviews-take-shape-in-pennsylvania-and-wisconsin">similar efforts</a> to relitigate the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas.
The results of the “audit” — a haphazard GOP review of ballots in Arizona’s Maricopa County, with no legal force behind it — found the vote totals virtually unchanged from the actual election results, which were <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/30/arizona-secretary-state-certify-election-results-monday/6444577002/">certified</a> by Arizona officials in November of last year.
That outcome isn’t a surprise: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which US elections officials said last year was “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-krebs">the most secure in American history</a>.” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/trump-backed-audits-that-keep-debunking-trump-ranked/">Every recount requested by Trump and his supporters</a> has upheld the results of the 2020 election.
While the ballot review didn’t turn up Trump’s nonexistent election fraud, the process has caused a legion of problems for Arizona elections officials, who are currently facing <a href="https://twitter.com/nickmartin/status/1441589373921759239?s=20">death threats</a> and will now have to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/07/14/arizona-audit-maricopa-county-spend-2-8-m-replace-voting-machines/7965882002/">spend millions</a> to replace voting machines in Maricopa County.
It also hasn’t quieted some of the most aggressive proponents of voter fraud conspiracies in Arizona, including state Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, who is now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-gop-chair-calls-new-audit-after-biden-confirmed-winner-again-1632669">calling for</a> a “full signature audit” in Maricopa County, and Trump himself, who used a <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1441787931107237888?s=20">Saturday interview</a> with right-wing outlet One America News to push debunked claims of election fraud.
And, perhaps most worryingly, Arizona’s attempt at a recount has provided a clear roadmap for pro-Trump officials around the country — specifically, in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin — to pursue their own “audits” and sow further distrust in American elections.
On the surface, the Arizona audit’s findings this week approximated Maricopa County’s actual, certified 2020 election results. The vote totals in the final report only differed by a <a href="https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1441233874340646919?s=20">few hundred votes</a> out of about 2.1 million, with Biden actually picking up votes.
In the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/24/1040327483/the-controversial-election-review-in-arizona-confirms-bidens-win?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sentences%209.24.21&utm_term=Sentences">final report</a> released Friday, however, Cyber Ninjas never explicitly say that Biden won, and the report also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/arizona-election-review-did-exactly-what-it-was-intended-do/">continues to baselessly raise the possibility of election fraud</a>.
That, combined with the process behind the audit — partisan, slipshod, and conspiratorial — makes for a deeply concerning precedent, particularly as other states take up similar efforts.
From the start, the recount was a partisan enterprise, supported by Arizona’s Republican Senate majority. The company hired to conduct the audit — Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based security firm — had <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/Partisan%20Election%20Review%20Efforts%20Across%20the%20United%20States%20in%202021%20-%2007.08.21.pdf">no experience</a> conducting an election audit, and its CEO, Doug Logan, openly promoted pro-Trump election conspiracies on Twitter before deleting his account in January, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/Election-audit-Arizona-Republicans.html">according to the New York Times</a>.
Cyber Ninjas also hired a group called Wake TSI to complete the hand count of Maricopa County ballots, adding to the chaos of the process. According to a report by the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/Partisan%20Election%20Review%20Efforts%20Across%20the%20United%20States%20in%202021%20-%2007.08.21.pdf">Brennan Center for Justice</a>, Wake TSI has ties to Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement and had previously been contracted by pro-Trump group Defending the Republic to review the results of the election in one Pennsylvania county.
Cyber Ninja’s methods were also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html">wildly out of line</a> with normal audit procedures, which prioritize the security of ballots and voters’ personal information, and the group performed its review without the transparency typical for such processes, insisting to reporters and other observers that their procedures were “trade secrets.”
<a href="https://www.vox.com/22417310/arizona-audit-ballots-cyber-ninjas-uv-lights-qanon-conspiracy-theory-vote-suppression-fraud">As Vox’s Ian Millhiser reported in May</a>, Cyber Ninjas also pursued a long list of nonsense audit methods, including examining ballots under ultraviolet light and considering their “thickness or feel.”
Specifically, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22417310/arizona-audit-ballots-cyber-ninjas-uv-lights-qanon-conspiracy-theory-vote-suppression-fraud">according to Millhiser</a>:
<blockquote>
After a state court <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-arizona-recount/2021/04/29/bcd8d832-a798-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html">ordered Cyber Ninjas to disclose</a> how it is conducting this so-called audit, a subcontractor revealed that the process involves weighing ballots, examining them under a microscope, and examining the “thickness or feel” of individual ballots in order to <a href="https://www.cyberninjas.com/static/20210429155650/Wake-TSI-Counting-Floor-Policies.pdf">identify “questionable ballots”</a> that need to be examined by a “lead forensic examiner” and then “removed from the batch and sent for further analysis.”
</blockquote>
On Friday, after the conclusion of the audit, <a href="https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1441228178001850371">a tweet from Maricopa County officials</a> summed up the Cyber Ninjas effort.
“Cyber Ninjas confirms the county’s canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win,” the official Maricopa County Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1441228178001850371">noted</a>. “Unfortunately, the report is also littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County conducted the 2020 General Election.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Unfortunately, the report is also littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County conducted the 2020 General Election.
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) <a href="https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1441228178001850371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Although the Arizona audit didn’t <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/trump-backed-audits-that-keep-debunking-trump-ranked/">produce the result Trump</a> wanted — an impossible about-face from the certified results that would give him further pretense to call into question the entire 2020 election — the effort is already serving as a model for Republicans looking to promulgate election fraud conspiracies.
Specifically, as of this week, Republican legislators in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin have all embarked on a mission to implement recounts or investigations of their own, though the election is long over and certified.
On Thursday, the <a href="https://www.sos.state.tx.us/about/newsreleases/2021/092321.shtml">Texas secretary of state’s office</a> released a statement that it would perform a review of the election results in four counties — Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin — adding that they expect the Texas legislature to pay for the process, but failing to disclose any further details, or a reason why the audit is necessary. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-gops-election-audit-confirms-biden-win-in-draft-report-11632467822?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium">According to the Wall Street Journal</a>, Trump called on Gov. Greg Abbott to conduct an audit earlier on Thursday, despite the fact that Trump won the state by a sizable margin in 2020.
In <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1039451858/republican-led-election-reviews-take-shape-in-pennsylvania-and-wisconsin">Pennsylvania</a>, meanwhile, Republican legislators in the Senate’s Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted <a href="https://www.witf.org/2021/09/15/senate-panel-orders-state-election-officials-to-hand-over-troves-of-voter-records/">earlier this month</a> to subpoena voters’ personal information — including addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial social security numbers — in preparation for a new review of the state’s 2020 election results.
Previous election audits, judicial determinations, and both Republican and Democratic election officials have already concluded that Biden won Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1039451858/republican-led-election-reviews-take-shape-in-pennsylvania-and-wisconsin">according to NPR.</a>
Lastly, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/trump-backed-audits-that-keep-debunking-trump-ranked/">in Wisconsin</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-business-texas-arizona-elections-6a1538db5d3fa52e00567d5f016ef971">two separate election reviews</a> — one by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, and one by a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wisconsin-courts-voting-presidential-elections-cffb3e0ac958ae0a8565454b5e4af584">pro-Trump former state Supreme Court justice</a> who has espoused false election conspiracies — are also underway.
Previously, the Trump campaign <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-falls-short-wisconsin-recount-he-paid-3-million-n1249289">paid about $3 million</a> for a review of the votes in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee and Dane counties, fraudulently alleging that “15-20% of absentee ballots in Milwaukee County were tainted” by poll workers. That recount, which was completed in November 2020, found no evidence of Trump’s claims and confirmed Biden’s victory in the state.
In addition to these new audits, it’s possible that pro-Trump recount efforts in Arizona aren’t over yet either: On Friday, Trump-backed Arizona secretary of state candidate <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/19/22682438/trump-justice-for-j6-rally-far-right-elections">Mark Finchem</a> tweeted out a call to <a href="https://twitter.com/RealMarkFinchem/status/1441419094675189765?s=20">conduct a recount</a> in Arizona’s Pima County.
On the surface, the Arizona audit didn’t work out for Trump or the Arizona GOP — that is, it didn’t find the election fraud they’ve long alleged exists, contrary to all evidence. On another level, however, as the Washington Post’s Philip Bump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/arizona-election-review-did-exactly-what-it-was-intended-do/">pointed out Friday</a>, Trump and company got exactly what they wanted.
“The Cyber Ninjas appear to have done exactly what they were hired to do,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/24/arizona-election-review-did-exactly-what-it-was-intended-do/">Bump wrote</a> ahead of the release of the final report. “They were not hired to recount ballots that had already been counted. They were, instead, hired to slather some semblance of authority on top of conspiracy theories. To anchor irrational assumptions about fraud to something resembling rationality.”
The problems with that are obvious — despite the complete lack of evidence, claims of voter fraud have taken root with a <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/poll-two-thirds-of-republicans-still-think-the-2020-election-was-rigged-165934695.html">broad portion</a> of the Republican electorate, election workers are facing a barrage of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/terrorized-us-election-workers-get-little-help-law-enforcement-2021-09-08/">death threats and harassment</a>, and a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/politics/cnn-poll-most-americans-democracy-under-attack/index.html">CNN/SSRS poll</a> conducted earlier this month found that a majority of Americans now feel that American democracy is “under attack.”
The prospect of more recounts to come in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas also means that that problem isn’t likely to abate any time soon — and as the immediate calls for more “audits” by pro-Trump officials in Arizona underscore, the goal isn’t so much to confirm the accuracy of the 2020 election as to confirm a preconceived, false belief that the election was stolen from Trump.
“Though many may experience a short burst of schadenfreude at the Republicans’ failure here, the result isn’t really funny,” <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/the-arizona-recounts-happy-ending-does-not-justify-its-existence/620196/?utm_source=feed">the Atlantic’s David A. Graham wrote on Friday</a>. “All is not well that ends well. Faith in elections is essential to a functioning democracy, and Trump and his allies have sought to undercut the belief that the election system is accurate.”
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/25/22692965/arizona-audit-finished-other-states-getting-started">https://www.vox.com/2021/9/25/22692965/arizona-audit-finished-other-states-getting-started</a>

vox Arizona finished its “audit.” Other states are just getting started.

Arizona’s spurious election “audit” concluded on Friday, confirming yet again that President Joe Biden won Maricopa County and the state ...

Taliban Recognition "Not On The Table": Russia Foreign Minister

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Taliban Recognition 'Not On The Table': Russia Foreign Minister" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/taliban-generic-650_625x300_1530457303276.jpg" title="Taliban Recognition 'Not On The Table': Russia Foreign Minister" /></div>
Taliban's recognition was not currently under consideration, a senior Russia minister said.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that international recognition of the Taliban was not currently under consideration.
Lavrov was speaking on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly. His comments come after the Taliban nominated a UN envoy, setting up a showdown over Afghanistan's seat at the world body.
"The question of international recognition of the Taliban at the present juncture is not on the table," Lavrov told a news conference.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Monday nominated the Islamist group's Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan's U.N. ambassador. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month.
Ghulam Isaczai, the current U.N. ambassador who represents the Afghan government ousted by the Taliban, has also asked to renew his U.N. accreditation.
Russia is a member of a nine-member U.N credentials committee - along with China and the United States - which will deal with the competing claims on Afghanistan's U.N. seat later this year.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the Taliban's desire for international recognition is the only leverage other countries have to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.
When the Taliban last ruled between 1996 and 2001 the ambassador of the Afghan government they toppled remained the UN representative after the credentials committee deferred its decision on rival claims to the seat.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/taliban-recognition-not-on-the-table-russia-foreign-minister-sergei-lavrov-2553930">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/taliban-recognition-not-on-the-table-russia-foreign-minister-sergei-lavrov-2553930</a>

news world Taliban Recognition "Not On The Table": Russia Foreign Minister

Taliban's recognition was not currently under consideration, a senior Russia minister said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov s...

Angela Merkel Makes Final Push For Successor In Germany's Knife-Edge Polls

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Angela Merkel Makes Final Push For Successor In Germany's Knife-Edge Polls" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-08/h708o97k_angela-merkel-germanyafp650_625x300_25_August_21.jpg" title="Angela Merkel Makes Final Push For Successor In Germany's Knife-Edge Polls" /></div>
Angela Merkel appealed for vote to Armin Laschet.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged Germans to give her would-be successor Armin Laschet their vote to shape Germany's future, in a last-ditch push to shore up his beleaguered campaign 24 hours before Germans vote.
Laschet, 60, has been trailing his Social Democrat challenger Olaf Scholz in the race for the chancellery, although final polls put the gap between them within the margin of error, making the vote one of the most unpredictable in recent years.
Merkel had planned to keep a low profile in the election battle as she prepares to bow out of politics after 16 years in power. But she has found herself dragged into the frantic campaign schedule of the unpopular chairman of her party, Laschet.
In the last week of the campaign, Merkel took Laschet to her constituency by the Baltic coast and on Friday headlined the closing rally gathering the conservatives' bigwigs in Munich.
Merkel tugged at the heartstrings of Germany's predominantly older electorate on Friday, calling on them to keep her conservatives in power for the sake of stability -- a trademark of Germany.
A day before the vote, she had travelled to Laschet's hometown and constituency Aachen, a spa city near Germany's western border with Belgium and the Netherlands, where he was born and still lives.
"It is about your future, the future of your children and the future of your parents," she said at her last rally before the polls, urging strong mobilisation for her conservative alliance.
- Climate high on agenda -
She underlined that climate protection would be a key challenge of the next government, but that this would not be achieved "simply through rules and regulations.
"For that we need new technological developments, new procedures, researchers, interested people who think about how that can be done, and people who participate," she said.
Laschet is a "bridge-builder who will get people on board" in shaping Germany to meet those challenges, she said.
Hundreds of thousands of people had descended on the streets on Friday urging change and greater climate protection, with a leading activist calling Sunday's election the vote "of a century".
On Saturday, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg told a rally near Germany's Garzweiler mine, one of the biggest in Europe, that the elections "are not going to resolve the crisis, whatever the outcome".
"You're going to have to keep mobilising, organising and taking to the streets," she said.
With the clock ticking down to the election, Scholz was also staying close to home at the other end of the country to chase down last votes.
Taking questions from voters in his constituency of Potsdam -- a city on the outskirts of Berlin famous for its palaces that once housed Prussian kings, -- Scholz said he was fighting for "a major change in this country, a new government" led by him.
He also gave a glimpse of the future government he hopes to lead, saying that "perhaps it may be enough to, for instance, form a government between the SPD and the Greens".
Scholz, currently finance minister in Merkel's coalition government, has avoided making mistakes on the campaign trail, and largely won backing as he sold himself as the "continuity candidate" after Merkel in place of Laschet.
Described as capable but boring, Scholz has consistently beaten Laschet by wide margins when it comes to popularity.
- 'Could backfire' -
As election day loomed, Laschet's conservatives were closing the gap, with one poll even putting them just one percentage point behind the SPD's 26 percent.
Laschet went into the race for the chancellery badly bruised by a tough battle for the conservatives' chancellor candidate nomination.
Nevertheless, his party enjoyed a substantial lead ahead of the SPD heading into the summer.
But Laschet was seen chuckling behind President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he paid tribute to victims of deadly floods in July, an image that would drastically turn the mood against him and his party.
As polls showed the lead widening for the SPD, the conservatives turned to their greatest asset -- the still widely popular Merkel.
Yet roping in the chancellor is not without risks, said political analyst Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin's Free University.
"Merkel is still the most well-liked politician. But the joint appearances can become a problem for Laschet because they are then immediately being compared to each other," he said.
"And it could therefore backfire because people could then think that Merkel is more suitable than Laschet."
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/angela-merkel-makes-final-push-for-successor-armin-laschet-in-germanys-knife-edge-polls-2553928">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/angela-merkel-makes-final-push-for-successor-armin-laschet-in-germanys-knife-edge-polls-2553928</a>

news world Angela Merkel Makes Final Push For Successor In Germany's Knife-Edge Polls

Angela Merkel appealed for vote to Armin Laschet. Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday urged Germans to give her would-be successor Armi...

UK To Offer 10,500 Post-Brexit Visas To Ease Worker Shortages

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="UK To Offer 10,500 Post-Brexit Visas To Ease Worker Shortages" src="https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2016-01/uk-visa-generic_650x400_51453218458.jpg" title="UK To Offer 10,500 Post-Brexit Visas To Ease Worker Shortages" /></div>
UK will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas.
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London, United Kingdom:
Britain will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas to lorry drivers and poultry workers to ease chronic staff shortages, the government said Saturday, in a U-turn on post-Brexit immigration policy.
The short-term visas, which will start next month and last until late December, come as huge queues form at petrol stations following fuel supply problems and after earlier disruption to deliveries of food and other goods.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uk-visa-britain-to-offer-10-500-post-brexit-visas-to-ease-worker-shortages-2553904">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/uk-visa-britain-to-offer-10-500-post-brexit-visas-to-ease-worker-shortages-2553904</a>

news world UK To Offer 10,500 Post-Brexit Visas To Ease Worker Shortages

UK will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas. London, United Kingdom: Britain will issue up to 10,500 temporary work visas to lorry ...

When Harry - And Meghan - Met Deputy UN Chief In New York

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="When Harry - And Meghan - Met Deputy UN Chief In New York" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-01/ehjv3j1_prince-harry-meghan-markle-afp_625x300_09_January_20.jpg" title="When Harry - And Meghan - Met Deputy UN Chief In New York" /></div>
Harry and Meghan Markle met UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited the United Nations in New York on Saturday to meet with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed during the 193-member world body's annual gathering of leaders.
"It was a lovely meeting," Markle told reporters as the couple left U.N. headquarters.
Mohammed welcomed the commitment and work of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations said. The goals were created by the United Nations in 2015 and tackle issues such as ending hunger and poverty, achieving gender equality and combating climate change.
"The Deputy Secretary-General affirmed support for shared priorities around climate action, women's economic empowerment, youth engagement and mental wellbeing," the United Nations said in a statement.
The couple are in New York to attend the Global Citizen Live concert in Central Park later on Saturday, which aims to push for greater action to combat climate change and urge rich countries to share one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines with nations most in need.
On Thursday, the 37-year-old prince and Meghan, 40, visited the city's memorial for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. They were accompanied by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The couple quit their royal duties last year to build an independent life and moved from Britain to California, where they live with their two children - two-year-old Archie and Lilibet, who was born in June.
They have launched their Archewell Foundation, as well as cutting lucrative deals for producing TV shows and a podcast. Last week the couple graced the cover of Time magazine's annual 100 most influential people in the world issue.
The United Nations said that during the meeting on Saturday, Mohammed "also commended the initiatives of the Archewell Foundation in promoting vaccine equity around the world."
World leaders returned to the United Nations over the past week with a focus on boosting efforts to fight both climate change and COVID-19. Last year leaders sent video statements for the annual high-level U.N. General Assembly instead of traveling to New York amid the pandemic.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/when-harry-and-meghan-met-deputy-un-chief-in-new-york-2553897">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/when-harry-and-meghan-met-deputy-un-chief-in-new-york-2553897</a>

news world When Harry - And Meghan - Met Deputy UN Chief In New York

Harry and Meghan Markle met UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited the United Nations in New...

COVID-19 Vaccinated Pregnant Women Pass Protection To Newborns: Study

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="COVID-19 Vaccinated Pregnant Women Pass Protection To Newborns: Study" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/rlunh1mo_coronavirus-vaccine-generic-afp-650_625x300_29_April_21.jpg" title="COVID-19 Vaccinated Pregnant Women Pass Protection To Newborns: Study" /></div>
The study found no increased risks during pregnancy, birth complications. (Representational)
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Washington:
According to a new study, women who receive the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy pass high levels of antibodies to their babies.
The findings of the study were published in the ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM''.
The effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the researchers say, lies in their ability to trigger the production of the right antibodies, blood proteins capable of protecting individuals from infection.
Whether this protection could pass from mothers to their infants before birth had remained a question.
The new study of 36 newborns whose mothers received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy found that 100 per cent of the infants had protective antibodies at birth.
Antibodies can either be produced as part of the natural response to infection or triggered by vaccines.
With that in mind, the research team was able to tell apart antibodies in the neonatal blood that were created in response to natural infection from those made in response to the vaccines.
The result is relevant because natural antibody responses against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are not sufficiently protective for many people.
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that just 23 per cent of pregnant women have been vaccinated, despite growing evidence of prenatal vaccine safety.
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study authors observed the highest levels of antibodies in cord blood of mothers who were fully vaccinated during the second half of their pregnancies.
This insight provides evidence of transferred immunity to neonates, which correlates to protection against infection for infants during the first months of life.
"Studies continue to reinforce the importance of vaccines during pregnancy and their power to protect two lives at once by preventing severe illness in both mothers and babies," said Ashley S. Roman, MD, director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Silverman Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NYU Langone Health, and one of the study's principal investigators.
"If babies could be born with antibodies, it could protect them in the first several months of their lives, when they are most vulnerable," added Roman.
As the COVID-19 vaccines received authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration, the CDC consistently asserted that they should not be withheld from people who are pregnant and want the vaccine.
Dr Roman and colleagues confirm the strong evidence that the mRNA vaccines are safe during pregnancy in a study published on August 16 in the ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology--Maternal-Fetal Medicine'', titled ''COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy: Early Experience from a Single Institution''.
The study found no increased risks during pregnancy, birth complications, or identifiable risks to the fetus among those who received the vaccine.
In the current study, though the sample size is small, "it is encouraging that neonatal antibody levels are high if women are vaccinated," said Jennifer L. Lighter, MD, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, hospital epidemiologist at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, and the study's senior author.
Existing studies analyse antibodies to the spike protein (anti-S IgG) alone, which may be present after natural infection or vaccination, and do not include antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein (anti-N IgG), which is only present following natural infection.
Among the 36 samples collected, all had high levels of anti-S IgG. Of those samples, 31 were tested for anti-N IgG and were negative.
"High levels of transplacental antibody transfer are not surprising. It is consistent with what we see with other immunisations," said Dr Lighter.
"Our findings add to a growing list of important reasons why women should be advised to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy for the added benefit of their newborn receiving crucial protection," added Dr Lighter.
Additional research is needed to determine how effective the infant antibodies are, how long protection will last, and if vaccination in the second half of pregnancy may confer higher levels of antibody transfer than vaccination earlier in pregnancy.
Future studies should also focus on antibody transmission to newborns in a larger population and the durability of antibody detection during infancy.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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The study found no increased risks during pregnancy, birth complications. (Representational) Washington: According to a new study, wome...