Adults ages 65 and up may get one of the newly approved RSV vaccines, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided Wednesday.
The committee voted 9-5 to recommend two different RSV vaccines for adults ages 65 and up, from the pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and GSK. Thirteen members also voted to recommend the shots for adults ages 60 to 64 based on individual risk levels and in consultation with doctors, with one committee member abstaining.
Respiratory syncytial virus causes a lower respiratory illness that is generally mild for most healthy adults. But in serious cases, RSV can lead to pneumonia or bronchiolitis, which inflames airways and clogs them with mucus.
Older people are particularly vulnerable to severe outcomes: RSV kills up to 10,000 people ages 65 or older every year in the U.S.