Should You Get an RSV Vaccine? > News > Yale Medicine

[Originally published: July 24, 2023. Updated: Oct. 7, 2024]

This winter, when the usual sneezing, wheezing, coughing, and fevers start up, there is extra protection for people at high risk from at least one common illness. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes mild cold symptoms in most people, but can lead to hospitalization and even death in older people and babies. But now there are immunizations aimed at older people, babies, and pregnant women who want to protect their newborns.

“A lot is changing for RSV,” says Scott Roberts, MD, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist. “There have been attempts to make a vaccine for decades, and they have failed for a variety of reasons.”

One turning point came with the investigation of an RSV protein called “RSV fusion (F)” that provided potent stimulation to the immune system—research that paved the way to clinical trials showing positive results.

The vaccines for older people are important, partly because immunity wanes with age, and they’re unable to fight off infections such as RSV as well as they did when they were younger, explains Dr. Roberts. Children are vulnerable because their lungs are smaller, making them more vulnerable to severe disease.

There are now three RSV vaccines for people ages 60 and older to choose from. They are ABRYSVO® from Pfizer; AREXVY® from GSK; and mRESVIA®, manufactured by Moderna.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all adults ages 75 and older and those ages 60 to 74 who have risk factors for severe RSV disease, such as chronic heart or lung disease, a weakened immune system, other medical conditions such as diabetes, and/or live in a nursing home, get one of the three RSV vaccines. (However, the CDC says if you received an RSV vaccine last year, you don’t need an RSV vaccination this year.)

In addition, there are two options for infants and toddlers, including a monoclonal antibody called nirsevimab (brand name Beyfortus®) for all infants up to 8 months old born during—or entering—their first RSV season, and for a small group during their second season who are between 8 and 19 months old and at high risk for severe disease (including children who are severely immunocompromised).

ABRYSVO is also approved for administering to pregnant women ahead of the RSV season to provide them with antibodies they could pass along to the fetus and protect their newborns from birth to 6 months of age from severe RSV.

Dr. Roberts and Thomas Murray, MD, PhD, a Yale Medicine pediatric infectious diseases specialist, answered questions about the new options for older adults and kids.