By Niamh Harris – The People’s Voice
The recently approved vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have already been linked to deaths and serious injuries, but US health officials continue to recommend them as “safe and effective.”
It’s been less than a year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended two new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, but already yet CDC data and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) show reports of 34 deaths, 302 serious adverse events.
Recently there have been reports about a possible link to the RSV vaccine and a rare and serious nervous system condition Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
The Defender reports: Reported cases include several instances of severe adverse events in newborns, including the death of a 27-day-old baby who was wrongly administered the vaccine, and in pregnant women and people in age groups for which the RSV vaccines were not approved.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s Abrysvo and GSK’s Arexvy RSV vaccines for adults ages 60 and older — but not for children or babies.
Abrysvo is also approved for pregnant women, targeting RSV prevention in babies. The FDA approved Abrysvo and Arexvy in May 2023.
According to CDC data, approximately 9.65 million RSV vaccine doses — 6.58 million Arexvy doses and 3.06 million Abrysvo doses — were administered as of Feb. 16.
Members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) presented the data on deaths and adverse events related to the RSV vaccines at a Feb. 29 meeting.
Yet, ACIP — and news media reports — primarily focused on GBS safety signals, glossing over deaths and the administration of the vaccines to unauthorized age groups.
Instead, CDC officials claimed it’s too early to determine if the RSV vaccines caused the adverse events and reiterated that the shots are safe, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Experts who spoke with The Defender disputed the CDC’s reassurances. Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said “34 deaths in 10 months should be sufficient to pull the RSV vaccines from the market. But the FDA will not do that — nor will there be full investigations regarding these deaths.”
“I am greatly concerned with the excessive application of the RSV vaccine,” said cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough. “We are beginning to see the tip of the iceberg in terms of serious side effects.”
According to the CDC data presented at the Feb. 29 ACIP meeting, of the 34 deaths reported as of Feb. 16 following RSV vaccination, 22 were linked to Arexvy and nine to Abrysvo. In three instances, the report listed “no brand name.”
Yet, discrepancies in the data are evident, as the public-facing VAERS database indicates only 29 RSV vaccine-related deaths as of Feb. 23. And according to Albert Benavides, founder of VAERSAware.com, three more “hidden” deaths reported after RSV vaccines are listed in VAERS, but the vaccine name is unlabeled.
Benavides, who identified discrepancies and contradictions in VAERS data and has called attention to the existence of two parallel VAERS databases — one that is public-facing and one that is not — said, “It is simply gross and despicable the CDC and FDA are allowed to pass off this data obfuscation as pharmacovigilance.”
He added: “VAERS administration is simply not publishing all legitimate reports received.”