This fall marks the first time that vaccines will be available to fight the triple threat of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Some Massachusetts scientists are at the center of the upcoming vaccine campaigns, with new shots and medicines ready to go for the three respiratory viruses, which pose an increased risk to young children, elderly adults and immunocompromised people.
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Moderna Inc. has updated its COVID vaccine to more closely match currently circulating variants. The Cambridge team at Sanofi ADR, meanwhile, is behind an antibody that protects against RSV in all children younger than 8 months old.
Michael Greenberg, medical head of vaccines in North America at Sanofi, says last fall's "tripledemic," when kids with RSV filled pediatric hospital units as the flu and coronavirus circulated in lockstep, is still fresh on people's minds.
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"What we saw this past year was that RSV doesn't happen in a vacuum," Greenberg said. "Easily the worst [RSV season] in 10 years happened to coincide with an extremely bad flu season and a resurgence in Covid-19."
