Pediatricians across central and northern New York are dealing with a shortage of the vaccine that prevents a dangerous respiratory illness in children, RSV. Now, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is taking steps to try to get the vaccine into the hands of doctors.
Melanie Berry’s medically fragile son Gary successfully fought RSV. But it followed weeks on life support at Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse. So, when a vaccine to prevent RSV came on the market, Berry’s family jumped on it. He hasn’t had RSV since, and wants that assurance to be the norm for all kids.
“No mother should have to watch their child go through that,” said Berry. “No child should have to endure that when we have things that can prevent that."
The problem is that doctors and health care organizations aren’t getting the doses of the vaccine they’ve ordered. Syracuse Community Health interim President Ofrona Reid said his organization ordered hundreds of doses of the vaccine but has only received 20. Reid said he sees 30 kids each day who need the immunization, but can only offer it to a select few.
“The parents can get really upset and angry that we are pretty much neglecting their child from seeing a vaccine because we have a pick and choose,” Reid said. “So of course, it's not fair.”
Golisano has only one box of the vaccine left, which contains five doses. The drug is recommended for all babies born during the winter when RSV is most prevalent.
Schumer hopes he has the answer to this. He wants the CDC and FDA to pressure drug companies to produce more vaccines and get them to doctors in a timely manner. Schumer said this is an issue that plagues drugs new to the market, like the RSV vaccine just approved last year.
“It’s when you have a new drug and a disease that's needed very much, so you need to change,” Schumer said. “There needs to be more federal oversight in general of how the drug companies distribute it.”
The new antibody treatment is shown to reduce the risk of RSV complications by 70%.
