Instagram Post Misleads About Pfizer’s RSV Maternal Vaccine
SciCheck Digest
Clinical trial data for Pfizer’s maternal vaccine to protect babies from RSV support the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, according to a vote by an FDA advisory committee. The FDA could soon approve the vaccine. But a popular social media post makes misleading claims about the trial findings.
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Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, causes a mild cold for most people, but infants – particularly young and premature babies – can experience severe infections. However, a vaccine to protect young babies could soon get approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
Building on a scientific breakthrough in the study of RSV about a decade ago, Pfizer has developed a maternal vaccine, to be given to pregnant people so that the antibodies they develop can be passed on to their babies. The results of the clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed a vaccine efficacy of 81.8% against severe RSV-confirmed lower respiratory tract illness requiring a medical visit in the first 90 days after birth and an efficacy of 69.4% through 180 days after birth.
The vaccine is the same formulation as Pfizer’s RSV vaccine for older adults, who also are susceptible to serious and dangerous illness from the virus. The FDA approved the vaccine for adults age 60 and older on May 31, but it must separately consider the data on administering the shot in pregnant people to protect babies. On May 18, an FDA advisory committee voted affirmatively that the trial data supported the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine. The FDA’s decision on whether to approve it is expected to come in August, Pfizer said.
As in a Q&A article, RSV infects nearly all kids by the time they’re 2 years old, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention In addition to young and premature babies, infants with heart or lung disease, or weakened immune systems are to severe illness. , a professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, told us the virus “is the most commonly identified cause of
