RSV Vaccines Are Highly Effective in Older Adults

Computer illustration of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) —Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library—Getty Images In 2023, two new vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) , which kills thousands of older adults annually in the U.S., hit the market.

As millions of people aged 60 and older received the shots , researchers watched and waited to see whether the efficacy numbers seen in clinical trials, which were quite high, would be mirrored in the real world.

“There was a little concern that maybe these vaccines will not turn out to be quite as potent as they appeared,” says Dr.

Edward Walsh, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester.

The trials had rolled out in the later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic , when there wasn’t as much RSV circulating as usual, which made some researchers wonder how later studies would play out.

However, in a study published Sept.

18 in JAMA Network Open looking at 14.8 million seniors, researchers at the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration found that the vaccines were highly effective, reducing the chances of an RSV-related hospitalization or death by around 80%.

Vaccines protect against RSV in older adults Since the rollout, a handful of studies have looked at the effectiveness of these two vaccines , which are made by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.

“These have all—very interestingly, and comfortingly—really paralleled and mimicked the exact results of the efficacy trials,” says Walsh, who was not involved in the new study.

But this new work examines the entire U.S. population over 65 who are enrolled in Medicare, which is “vastly greater than the other studies,” he says.

So these results are particularly reassuring.

In general, both vaccines performed similarly.

The study found that people who received an RSV vaccine were more likely to live in affluent areas and more likely to have been vaccinated for flu and COVID, raising the question of whether their higher survival numbers have to do with access to health care.