 And we are back. Earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca and Sinovies shot that protects infants and toddlers from the respiratory sin. I have tried to say this so many times. This is like, my dyslexia is like, oh, we're not going to say that. This is, why don't you say it, doctor? Respiratory sensation virus, let's call it RSV. RSV, we're just going to call it RSV. And I should introduce my guest, Dr. Mubin Rathor, Professor and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology at UF Health Jacks. And he's here with me now to talk about RSV. So tell me, RSV, who can catch it? Well, thank you. I'm good to have you. Yeah, good to be here. So RSV is an infection that almost all children get by the time they turn two years of age. It's sort of a rite of passage. And this has been a serious illness in children for a long time, last two seasons, last two years, it's been worse. We have seen a lot more kids sick in the hospital. It's dying of it. So it's been a really terrible last two seasons. It seems to be getting worse. And we have thus far, we don't have a treatment for it. That's a huge thing. Has it gotten worse because of COVID? It feels like I didn't hear much about RSV until COVID happened. First of all, COVID took all the space. So you didn't hear about, but we have known in the healthcare field forever. I mean, I've been doing this for a long time and I can tell you when even started my training, it was a huge issue. So we have significant improvement. Now we have no treatment. We now have a prevention for this, which we have to give through the RSV season, which traditionally is late September until about March. But in Florida, it could be 10 months. And we can give some medication to high risk vulnerable children to prevent it, but it has to be given five times. Every once a month, five months. But this new medication is exciting because you only have to give one of them. So is this new medication? Is it a vaccine or is it? Yeah, I would like you to think of it like a vaccine, except in a vaccine when I get a vaccine shot, which I have gotten all my vaccines. My body produces antibodies. The beauty here is because the little babies, children cannot produce the sometime they're not as this immune system is not as well developed. So this you actually give that antibody. It's a monoclonal antibody. It's not derived from humans. So you can give it to the little infants and then it'll last you for the whole season, six months or so. But you have to come back and get it again. So most children are the younger infants, less than a year. Some children get it in second year of life also. So it's really for the infants who are going to be an infant age group during the season. But there's also can be given the second season because I'm two year olds also get the idea really is honestly is very common. Okay, but we only see the tip of the iceberg for the children who are admitted to the hospital or get very sick. So really should this vaccine be given to all children to protect all of them. It remains to be seen the Centers for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics will come up with the recommendation soon. I don't know exactly where it is going. It seems it may go towards giving it all children, but definitely it will be recommended for given to high risk children. High risk children, would that be children that like have breathing issues like asthma so to speak? So these are premature babies and children who have chronic lung disease, chronic heart disease, other chronic conditions that puts them at high risk for complications of RSV. So all of those they already get this preventive medicine, but one shot for five months consecutive months. They will hopefully all of them will just get this one shot. What that does is you can if you miss a dose in this five months, you're not protected. So one dose you're protected for the whole season. Let me ask you a question like just to pull back a little bit from RSV. But to talk specifically about vaccines and how it's changed over specifically after COVID. Because it feels like prior to COVID vaccines like I heard a small group of people that were anti-vaccine and then during COVID it just blew up. Like a lot of people do not trust vaccines now. Are you seeing that in your practice? So let me set the stage. First of all the vaccines are the best, most effective, safest tool in our toolbox. My children have gotten all possible vaccines. My family with all possible vaccines. I cannot give you a better recommendation than that. So to answer your question specifically, yes, there seems to be a more of this anti-vaccine situation right now. And certainly we have seen that and that, you know, that on top of the fact the pandemic, a lot of children would not be able to get to the doctor. They're seeing a lower level of vaccination. We have to continue to work. We have to provide the public with the right information. There's so much misinformation. Information does not equate to knowledge. So I think it's important that we tell people the vaccines are safe. They're effective. There are systems in place that even if there's a signal of a problem with the vaccine, the authorities will stop that. All right. And we've got a call. Chris and Clearwater, please keep it on topic and keep it brief. Chris, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. I'm curious because here in Clearwater I listened to community on the community sponsored station WMNF. Fred Harvey, Dr. Fred Harvey has a weekly show on Mondays. And he said, like this past Monday, he's seeing an increase in mold infections as well as other infections. I've seen other doctors here locally mentioned. Dr. Fred Harvey says, as well as the other doctors, because the lowering of the immune system from those, the other CD4, CD8, T lymphocyte cell counts going so low that they're clinically have AIDS even. And it's the only those who've received the COVID shot in their studies from Dr. Bruce Patterson that Dr. Harvey mentions showing that the spike protein continues to be made by those who've received the mRNA shot. Those are the Pfizer and Moderna shots, which causes a lot of studies show cardiovascular issues, myocarditis, blood clots. Let's hear from the doctor before we go into that. Do you have any responses? Absolutely. All vaccines, all medications are a risk-benefit issue. First of all, none of that has really been proven. That's science. You keep on looking at things and you have to have really evidence to support that just because there is a little bit of evidence doesn't mean that it is what causes it. I'll give you an example. Just from this morning, as you heard, we have now found that a gene that people who get COVID will remain asymptomatic. Only 20% of the people have that. So that doesn't make it that everybody is going to be protected. One of these things that information comes out, we look at scientists and physicians and authorities look at each and every of these issues and they investigate it. We should thank CDC. We have such a great system that they look at any problem with vaccines. They have a nationwide system. Even there is a signal. I'm not saying there's evidence. Even the signal, they investigate that. I have an example of a rotavirus vaccine where there was a signal years ago and there were nine cases of disease and the vaccine was removed from the market. Most people even now say that was probably not the cause of it, but the signal. Right. I think that what the public has to get comfortable with is that like science changes. That it grows, our knowledge grows. We try things. Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes things, you know, at one stage of a disease that could look like this and then another stage it changes. And so like, you know, science is constantly moving forward and we're constantly learning new things. Yeah, I can't agree with you more. You know, what we made know today, we have to keep on looking at. We have to go by the best evidence today. Dr. Moby and Rathor, Professor and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease Immunology at UF Health, Jacks. Thanks so much for coming in. Thank you so much. Nice to be here. Good to see you.