Crypto News: RSV is back

This is Nacha in New York. I was wondering how the RSV season is going now that new vaccines for the most vulnerable are available. But first...

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Everyone in my household, including myself, has gotten RSV in the past two weeks. It's not fun. The mucus is endless. It creeps into the back of the throat, into the sinuses, and, in serious cases, can end up in the lungs.

In the past, people who caught this illness suffered like me and my family. Now, RSV protection has finally arrived for adults older than 60 and newborns following decades of failed attempts to inoculate against it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV kills 10,000 people ages 65 and older and up to 300 children under age 5 every year in the US. And RSV is the leading cause of hospitalizations for infants.

After a surge in cases last year, Pfizer and GSK developed shots for the elderly. Sanofi, with AstraZeneca, got approval for immunizations for infants using monoclonal antibodies, and Pfizer began vaccinating pregnant people to protect their newborns.

But there have been quite a few hiccups during the rollout of those vaccines.

Already, the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System is reporting RSV transmission has increased to "seasonal epidemic levels" in the US South, and is expected to continue to increase in the rest of the country within the next one to two months.

While RSV levels are lower than they were at the same time last year, the 2023 season started later, and most recently has seen a steep rise in cases.

First, the CDC recommendations for all of the shots were only announced recently, from late June for older adults to September for pregnant people. Demand has been much stronger than expected, leading to shortages of Sanofi's immunization for newborns.

The alternative, Pfizer's maternal vaccine, can be administered within the 32nd and 36th week of gestation. For pregnant people getting jabbed now, it still makes sense to protect babies born in December or January. But if they haven't reached the vaccine window by now, the worst of the RSV season may have passed, and protection fades after six months.

Donna Tyungu, division chief of the pediatric infectious disease unit at Oklahoma Children's Hospital at OU Health, says she's seen RSV cases double from September. Vaccine shortages and approvals arriving so close to the RSV season haven't helped, she says.

"I do expect it to be a pretty bad RSV season, and it's unfortunate because we have so many tools in our tool belt," she says.

Vaccine trials continue. Perhaps next year the shot can be administered to even more people. -Nacha Cattan

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