A prominent anti-vaccine organization is promoting misinformation about the clinical trial for an RSV vaccine that the FDA recently recommended during pregnancy to protect newborns. The post claims that 12 infants died in the clinical trial, suggesting that the deaths were due to the vaccine their mothers received. However, the 12 deaths were in the control group of infants whose mothers received the placebo. The false claim is circulating on multiple social media platforms.
The misinformation’s potential to cause vaccine hesitancy raises the risk. Debunking messaging may emphasize that the anti-vaccine organization misrepresents the study results to claim that infants whose mothers didn’t receive the vaccine were somehow harmed by it. The study included over 3,000 pregnant women, and 17 infant deaths were reported—12 in the control group and five in the vaccine group. No deaths were attributed to the vaccine. It is recommended to emphasize that the FDA rigorously reviewed clinical trial safety data before recommending the vaccine during the second or third trimester to protect newborns, who are particularly vulnerable to RSV.
