Moderna mRNA RSV Trial Finds Absolute Risk Reduction <1%

Written by Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH on January 7, 2024. Posted in Current News

Rare illnesses which are mild should not be the target for mass vaccination. Because so few people get the problem, and in the case of respiratory syncytial virus, the illness is so mild and easily treatable with albuterol and budesonide nebulizers, it is hard to make the case for mass vaccination with a novel mRNA platform.

Nevertheless, Moderna conducted a large randomized trial in adults at “high-risk” for RSV reporting only 20 cases (with three symptoms such as nasal congestion, cough, fever) out of 35,541 subjects (rate=.056%). Safety grade 3 or higher events at 28 days were reported in 4.0% of Moderna and 2.9% of placebo patients, respectively. The most common solicited systemic adverse reactions were fatigue, headache, myalgia, and arthralgia. There was one case of Moderna mRNA pericarditis at 42 days. The short-term vaccine efficacy was 82.4%.

Wilson E, Goswami J, Baqui AH, Doreski PA, Perez-Marc G, Zaman K, Monroy J, Duncan CJA, Ujiie M, Rämet M, Pérez-Breva L, Falsey AR, Walsh EE, Dhar R, Wilson L, Du J, Ghaswalla P, Kapoor A, Lan L, Mehta S, Mithani R, Panozzo CA, Simorellis AK, Kuter BJ, Schödel F, Huang W, Reuter C, Slobod K, Stoszek SK, Shaw CA, Miller JM, Das R, Chen GL; ConquerRSV Study Group. Efficacy and Safety of an mRNA-Based RSV PreF Vaccine in Older Adults. N Engl J Med. 2023 Dec 14;389(24):2233-2244. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2307079. PMID: 38091530.

I do not recommend adult RSV vaccination of any type since this is a very mild and rare infection in adults indistinguishable from the common cold. One serious side effect should be enough to kill interest in more clinical development.

Source: Substack

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