As COVID-19 swept across California in early 2020, pediatric infectious diseases physician Karin Nielsen grew alarmed by the crisis erupting in maternity wards. Pregnant women were placed on life support, undergoing emergency C-sections as the virus triggered severe complications. Some died.
Nielsen had just finished a research project on how the emerging infectious disease Zika was causing severe birth defects. Concerned the new coronavirus might have a similar impact, she began recruiting expectant mothers who tested positive for a new study.
Soon after the study’s participants began giving birth, Nielsen’s colleagues at UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital noticed an unusual number of their newborns requiring intensive care. Nielsen recalls another doctor stopping her to ask, "What’s wrong with the babies in your study?”
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