RSV Is Battering Hospitals With Sick Kids, but Vaccines Could Soon Be On Their Way to Help

Pediatric hospitals are currently packed with kids coming down with respiratory syncytial virus or RSV.  Babies under a year old are being hospitalized at six times the rate from 2019 and overall rates for people of all ages are seven times higher.  The good news is that help could be on the way.  This week, Pfizer announced that a clinical trial of their maternal vaccine prevented 69% of severe cases in infants.  While RSV is mainly thought of as affecting children, it does affect many older Americans and other vaccines are in the final stage of development there as well.  Keren Landman, health and science reporter at Vox, joins us for what to know.

Next, commercial satellites could be the next targets in space.  Private networks that provide aid during wartime efforts could be under the crosshairs as we are seeing with Ukraine and Russia.  SpaceX’s Starlink, which is providing internet to Ukraine after their networks were taken down, is coming under Russian scrutiny. This is prompting the Pentagon and others to think about establishing rules and norms for behavior in space.  Miriam Kramer, space reporter at Axios, joins us for this and news of a “planet killer” asteroid, but don’t worry they say it’s not a threat.

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