Is the RSV vaccine safe during pregnancy?

RSV concerns continue to circulate, also due to the vaccine’s inclusion in the ACIP agenda.

It is advised to limit tuna consumption during pregnancy due to methylmercury exposure. Conversely, the RSV vaccine is recommended in pregnancy to protect that same baby through passive immunity after they are born. RSV is a respiratory disease that can be very dangerous in infants and young babies. Vaccinating the mother in pregnancy between 32-36 weeks allows her to create antibodies which will then pass through the placenta to the fetus, protecting them from RSV for several months after birth.

Some claim that RSV vaccines could cause pre-term birth, and that pharmaceutical companies knew this, but pushed the FDA to approve them nonetheless.

As a member of the FDA advisory committee, Dr. Paul Offit was directly involved in these discussions. During a publicly available webinar, Dr. Offit observed that an initial safety signal concerning pre-term birth appeared only in lower- and middle-income countries. But in those places, the presence of an additional vaccine is not linked to an increase in prematurity rates in the vaccine group.

Instead, there is a clear decrease in prematurity rates in the placebo group. Individuals in the placebo group were more likely to have received a COVID-19 or flu vaccine, reducing the risk of prematurity from those diseases.