Now The Independent Adv. Comm. Backs Merck's RSV Vaccine For Administration To Infants This Fall Season...

Back on June 10 here, we reported the FDA clearance -- and in prior times, the independent Vaccines Advisory Committee would have been a non-event, as it always followed FDA approvals. But with Kennedy/Tangerine 2.0 -- there was a reasonable concern, that un-science might rule the day.

Thankfully that has not happened. So on to fall RSV season, and two competing providers of the mRNA vaccines, for infants. Price competition here is a good thing:

. . .The group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, also voted unanimously to include Merck’s shot in the government’s list of recommended childhood immunizations that receive wide insurance coverage.

The votes in favor of the injectable antibody, Enflonsia, are a sigh of relief for drugmakers and the medical community after Kennedy earlier this month gutted the panel and tapped replacements, some of whom are well-known vaccine critics.

The signoff will allow the company to launch the shot ahead of the RSV season that typically kicks off around fall and winter and lasts through the spring. Enflonsia, recommended for infants during their first RSV season, will compete head-to-head with a rival shot from Sanofi / AstraZeneca, called Beyfortus. . . .

Welp. This is good news. For both Merck, and the future of modernized vaccine science. We cannot let low information forces in dusty West Texas or rural Alabama decide to open all Americans. . . to a return of dread (and preventable) disease / pandemics. Onward, resolutely.

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