Each winter, a familiar virus moves through New Zealand's youngest children with quiet certainty, filling hospital wards and exhausting families in ways that have long been accepted as inevitable. Two health unions are now challenging that acceptance, arguing that RSV — responsible for 2,000 pediatric hospitalizations and $25 million in annual costs — belongs in the same category of preventable harm as influenza and COVID-19. The vaccines exist, the infrastructure exists, and a neighboring country has already acted; what remains is a decision about whether prevention is worth prioritizing befo
Health Unions Push for Fast-Track RSV Vaccine Approval and Funding in NZ
RSV causes 2,000 hospitalizations annually of children under 5 in New Zealand, representing significant morbidity and healthcare burden for vulnerable infants.