RSV Prevention: Final Reflections and a Vision for the Future

In the final episode, all panelists offer closing thoughts on RSV prevention, clinical communication, and the path forward. Dr. Simões returns to a critically underappreciated operational gap: communication between obstetricians and pediatricians. He shares cases in which hospitalized infants missed their window for maternal vaccination because an obstetrician had directed parents to wait for monoclonal antibody prophylaxis instead — a recommendation he considers clinically inappropriate. His bottom line: maternal vaccination and monoclonal antibody prophylaxis are equivalent in efficacy (95% confidence intervals overlap across studies), and both should be offered without preference or hierarchy. Physicians should never create a choice that results in neither intervention being received.

Dr. Tan reaffirms that RSV can be a very serious disease in young infants and calls on clinicians to use both maternal vaccines and monoclonal antibodies actively. She closes with appreciation for the progress the field has made. Dr. Creech situates this moment in its broader context: monoclonal antibody-based immunization for RSV is a prototype for the future of passive protection — for respiratory viruses, for travelers, and for a growing population of medically complex children (transplant recipients, immunocompromised adolescents, technology-dependent patients) who remain at risk beyond infancy. He envisions a future where RSV is discussed in the rearview mirror rather than as a constant presence in the pediatric ICU.

Dr. Munoz closes the series by celebrating the extraordinary scientific progress made over decades of RSV research, emphasizing that new data — on second-season protection, real-world effectiveness, and implementation — continue to emerge, and that the field cannot afford to let misinformation stand in the way of delivering these benefits to every eligible infant and family.

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