RSV shot for infants: Thousands more doses of RSV shot Beyfortus expedited for release amid shortage

CNN — Amid an ongoing shortage of nirsevimab, an RSV immunization for young children, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that more than 77,000 additional doses will be distributed “immediately.” These doses will be going to doctor’s offices and hospitals through the CDC’s Vaccines for Children Program and commercial channels, according to Thursday’s announcement. “Helping to ensure the availability of this preventative option to reduce the impact of RSV disease on eligible babies and young children, families and the health care system remains a priority,” Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the announcement. It’s not a vaccine.” The main concern among the American Hospital Association, relative to the Vaccines for Children program, is that it works well for outpatient pediatric primary care providers who need access to many routine immunizations to administer to children, but the program has not been formatted in a way that makes it convenient for birthing hospitals to participate in order to give just one or two immunizations to newborns. “But I think what we’ve learned now is, the VFC program really is a mismatch for the goal of doing that in the initial hospitalization period, and hopefully, as we walk through this RSV season, we’ll be able to open new lanes of access to this immunization moving forward, possibly by evolving components of the VFC program.” Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Friday from the CNN Health team.