SARS-CoV-2 can “destroy” the placenta in unvaccinated pregnant women and cause fetal hypoxaemia, warn US researchers. 

Their study of almost 70 placentas shows the cause of death in coronavirus-related stillbirths is more likely to be placental insufficiency rather than infection of the fetus. 

Lead author perinatal pathologist, Dr David Schwartz, said the research team had never seen placentas so damaged from an infection. 

“These fetuses and newborns died from asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen,” Dr Schwartz, a private pathologist from Atlanta told broadcaster NBC.