Anti-Vaccine Propaganda about Preventing RSV
RSV prevention season is starting...
It used to be that there was little we could do to get ready when RSV season was starting. Fortunately, we now have a few different preventative tools for infants, women who are pregnant, and seniors. At least we do if folks ignore anti-vaccine propaganda about preventing RSV and they take advantage of them!
Not surprisingly, anti-vaccine influencers have taken to minimizing the risks from RSV, overstating the risks of RSV vaccines, and trying to scare you away from getting vaccinated and protected.
Anti-Vaccine Propaganda about Preventing RSV
Unfortunately, most of us know what it is like to take care of a baby with RSV.
Your baby may have caught a cold in daycare or from an older sibling in school. They might have a runny nose, congestion, and a cough. And while they might be a little fussy or have some trouble feeding, the great majority of children with RSV will do fine and will get better in a few weeks.
But for some, after three to five days, their mild cold symptoms will become much worse. They will start breathing fast and hard, with grunting, wheezing, flaring of their nostrils, and tugging between their ribs and lower neck (retractions). They are fussier and they are not eating or sleeping and might end up in the hospital or ICU. and some die, as RSV is a life-threatening disease.
“RSV is not deadly for very many.”
Paul Thomas Retired pediatrician (sic)
Wait, how can a life-threatening disease be “not deadly for very many?”
Paul Thomas found a study (cherry picking) that used death certificate data and concluded that there were 315 deaths for newborns and infants between 2005 and 2016.
While 28 deaths a year isn’t enough to justify vaccine prevention for Paul Thomas, it is easy to see if you read the whole study that isn’t even the real count!
“Death certificate data provide one valuable way of tracking trends in RSV mortality and the potential impact of interventions, but likely underestimate RSV‐associated mortality.”
Respiratory syncytial virus-associated deaths in the United States according to death certificate data, 2005 to 2016.
Not surprisingly, Thomas also ignores all of the other studies that showed a much higher RSV death count for babies.
What about Larry Palevsky?
He doesn’t even believe that RSV causes kids to get sick!
He blames air quality and food choices for kids wheezing and getting sick during RSV season - not the respiratory syncytial virus!
“…a decreased opportunity for wheezing that we call RSV. The interesting thing is that the population is taught Paul that you don’t have RSV in you unless someone is sick and gives it to you. And the fact of the matter is that most babies and most of us are probably carrying the genetic material that we call RSV. And the mere presence of the viral material does not guarantee that you’re going to be ill.”
Larry Palevsky
Now Palevsky isn’t talking about carriers and asymptomatic infections here. He really doesn’t seem to think that RSV can make you sick.
Instead, your kids get sick during RSV season, according to Palevsky, is because there are “different energy cycles” and “different temperature cycles during spring, summer, fall, and winter and when our schedules are off, we’re not living closer to nature... Our bodies get sicker.”
“So even if they find RSV viral material in the nose, it doesn’t mean it’s what is causing your wheezing. Remember, wheezing is a sign that your lungs are dealing with something that it perceives is a threat, some kind of anaphylactic reaction. The virus isn’t causing the anaphylactic reaction. There’s something that the baby either ate or breathed in or was injected with from a prior shot or a combination of all three that could have created an anphylactic reaction in the baby… I understood that these illnesses were not viral illnesses, even though we could, we could come up with a uh, a swab that characterizes a virus as RSV. ”
Larry Palevsky
And while he says that he never saw a child suffer from an RSV infection, that’s not surprising, as he germ theory denier would likely never diagnose a child who was sick as having RSV!
Again, he doesn’t believe that RSV makes you sick, which isn’t surprising for the guy who thought the measles outbreak in Brooklyn, the largest in over 27 years, was a hoax.
Is this really the guy to go to for medical advice about your kids?
Facts about RSV Vaccines
If you want to protect your family from RSV, you should ignore this kind of propaganda from anti-vaccine influencers.
Instead, you should know that:
There is no cure for RSV. There is only symptomatic treatment if your child has RSV, even if becomes severe.
During RSV season, you can protect your child by getting an RSV vaccine (Abrysvo only) when you are 32 to 36 weeks pregnant (from September to January) OR your child can get a shot of nirsevimab (Beyfortus) if they are younger than 8 months old during their first RSV season (October to March).
Some older (8 months to 19 months), high risk children can get a shot of nirsevimab during their second RSV season.
Everyone who is 75 and older (if not yet vaccinated) should get an RSV vaccine (Arexvy, mResvia, or Abrysvo), as should those 60 to 74 years who are high risk for severe RSV disease.
RSV is indeed a life-threatening disease, leading to thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths each year. And millions of visits to the doctor and ER! If you don’t believe me, read up on news’ reports of overwhelmed Children’s Hospitals during RSV season.
You don’t have to worry about where monoclonal antibodies are sourced from. Even though Palevsky tries to scare you about contamination and poisons, know that the RSV antibodies in Beyfortus are hardly crudely made. They are created in a lab, not sourced from other children or animals, etc.
We have been using monoclonal antibodies to prevent RSV for over 25 years already with Synagis. The new monoclonal antibodies are a replacement for Synagis, as they are longer lasting and much less expensive.
If your child is tested with a respiratory panel and they have multiple viruses, know that it is typically because once you have an infection, you can test positive for many weeks or months. So if they test positive for RSV, flu, and rhinovirus, it doesn’t mean that your child is sick with all three. It is much more likely that only one of them is causing their active symptoms and the others were from recent infections. Also remember that it is possible to have a viral infection, even RSV, with no symptoms or minimal symptoms, which could explain why you didn’t know they had any recent infections. But mostly importantly know that the fact that some kids test positive for multiple viruses doesn’t mean that viruses don’t exist or don’t make us sick!
There is no evidence that receiving Beyfortus will cause a child to have a worse case of RSV if they get sick. We never saw anti-dependent enhancement when using Synagis for over 25 years and there is no evidence that Beyfortus causes ADE, except from one anti-vax researcher…
No infants died in the clinical trials from receiving Beyfortus.
And know that Paul Thomas is retired, because the state medical board made him surrender his medical license in Oregon.
References
‘Pediatric Perspectives’ With Paul Thomas. The Truth About RSV. Episode 21.
Prill MM, Langley GE, Winn A, Gerber SI. Respiratory syncytial virus-associated deaths in the United States according to death certificate data, 2005 to 2016. Health Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 2;4(4):e428. doi: 10.1002/hsr2.428. PMID: 34754948; PMCID: PMC8562311.
Munro APS, Martinón-Torres F, Drysdale SB, Faust SN. The disease burden of respiratory syncytial virus in Infants. Curr Opin Infect Dis. 2023 Oct 1;36(5):379-384. doi: 10.1097/QCO.0000000000000952. Epub 2023 Aug 23. PMID: 37610444; PMCID: PMC10487373.
Hansen CL, Chaves SS, Demont C, Viboud C. Mortality Associated With Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus in the US, 1999-2018. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Feb 1;5(2):e220527. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0527. PMID: 35226079; PMCID: PMC8886548.
Cohen C, Zar HJ. Deaths from RSV in young infants-the hidden community burden. Lancet Glob Health. 2022 Feb;10(2):e169-e170. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00558-1. PMID: 35063106.
RSV Immunization Guidance for Infants and Young Children. https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/hcp/vaccine-clinical-guidance/infants-young-children.html
RSV Vaccines for Older Adults. https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/vaccines/older-adults.html
RSV vaccines: Questions patients may have and how to answer. https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/rsv-vaccines-questions-patients-may-have-and-how-answer
Q&A on RSV Maternal Vaccine and Antibody Candidates to Protect Infants. https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/scicheck-qa-on-rsv-vaccine-and-antibody-candidates-to-protect-infants/