U.S. health regulators informed senior executives at Merck, Sanofi and AstraZeneca … that their approved protective RSV treatments for infants would face fresh safety scrutiny following concerns raised by vaccine skeptics ….
The preventive therapies … would be the latest called into question under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time promoter of anti-vaccine views who is presiding over a review of routine childhood immunizations.
Kennedy maintains the potential risks of many pharmaceutical products have not been properly studied. Leading medical societies and many state health officials say Kennedy is trying to dismantle a vaccine program that prevents disease and saves lives based on his beliefs rather than scientific evidence.
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Two or three out of every 100 infants under 6 months old are hospitalized with RSV annually, according to federal estimates. For babies at high risk, RSV infection can lead to severe breathing problems and pneumonia and may become life-threatening.
Unlike vaccines, these RSV therapies do not stimulate the immune system to create antibodies. Instead, they provide infants with ready-made antibodies to protect against illness in their first six months to over one year of life.
