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The Truth About RSV and Monoclonal Antibodies

By / / BabyBIG, Beyfortus, germ theory, germ-theory denialism, HBIG, IVIG, Larry Palevsky, mAbs, misinformation shills, monoclonal antibodies, Paul Thomas, Pemgarda, polyclonal antibodies, rabies immune globulin, RSV, Synagis, tetanus immunoglobulin, VariZIG

Why do some people think that monoclonal antibodies don’t have a long history of use in treating children?

You won't learn the truth about RSV and monoclonal antibodies from anti-vaccine influencers like Paul Thomas and Larry Palevsky.
Larry Palevsky is against Beyfortus for RSV because we thinks that we have never used monoclonal antibodies to treat children before. And it seems like he doesn’t really think that RSV causes disease…

The usual suspects…

The Truth About Monoclonal Antibodies

In a screed against protecting children against RSV, a life-threatening disease, one of the reasons Larry Palevsky uses against Beyfortus is that:

“And lastly, Paul, when did we ever use a monoclonal antibody to effectively prevent infection in children and be able to demonstrate that this is going to be able to help kids?”

Larry Palevsky

While Larry Palevsky thinks that there is “no precedence” for giving kids monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to prevent infections, and he wasn’t corrected by Paul Thomas (who is retired because the state board made him surrender his medical license), let me list all of the ways we have given kids monoclonal antibodies to prevent infections:

  • PEMGARDA (pemivibart) – – monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID-19 was approved in 2024
  • EVUSHELD (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab) – monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID-19 that was in use from 2021 to 2023
  • Rabishield – monoclonal antibodies to prevent rabies
  • Anthim (obiltoxaximab) – monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prophylaxis of adult and pediatric patients with inhalational anthrax was approved in 2016
  • ABthrax (Raxibacumab) – monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prophylaxis of adult and pediatric patients with inhalational anthrax was approved in 2012
  • Synagis (palivizumab) – monoclonal antibodies to prevent RSV was approved in 1998

That’s right.

Synagis, the very expensive, monthly shot that only high risk newborns and infants have been able to get to prevent RSV, is a monoclonal antibody!

Synagis is a monoclonal antibody that has been in use to prevent RSV for over 25 years.
We had been giving high risk babies Synagis to protect them from RSV for over 25 years.

It’s true! The kind of monoclonal antibody that Larry Palevsky said that there was “no precedence” for its use, has in fact been in use since 1998!

Not to mention that we have used polyclonal antibodies to protect kids from life-threatening infections, immune deficiencies, and a few other conditions, for even longer.

These include:

  • TIG – human Tetanus Immune Globulin has been in use since the 1960s
  • HBIG – Hepatitis B Immune Globulin has been in use since the 1970s
  • RIG – Rabies Immune Globulin has been in use since the 1950s
  • IG – immunoglobulin from pooled plasma for measles, rubella, and hepatitis A has been in use since the 1940s
  • VariZIG – varicella-zoster immune globulin for chicken pox (high risk patients) has been in use since the 2012s
  • diphtheria IG – although a human diphtheria IG can be made, most antitoxin that is used to treat diphtheria still comes from horses and has been in use for over 100 years
  • anthrax IG – indicated for the treatment of inhalational anthrax in adult and pediatric patients since 2015
  • IVIG – intravenous immune globulin has been in use since 1981
  • CMV IVIG – cytomegalovirus intravenous immune globulin or CytoGam has been in use since 2020
  • BIG IVIG – botulism intravenous immune globulin or BabyBIG has been in use since 2003
  • VIG IVIG – vaccinia intravenous immune globulin has been in use since 2005
  • RSV IVIG – RespiGam was approved in 1996

Polyclonal antibodies that are especially important when too many people listen to folks like Paul Thomas and Larry Palevsky and end up getting exposed to measles, tetanus, diphtheria, and hepatitis B, etc., when they are unvaccinated.

The Truth About RSV

While Paul Thomas seems skeptical of a lot of the things Larry Palevsky is saying, especially as he seems to be a germ theory denier, that certainly doesn’t mean that you should listen to Thomas either.

His reason for why you should skip Beyfortus?

Paul Thomas claims that RSV is “a disease that is uh basically a bad cold.”

Sure, it’s a “bad cold” that hospitalizes thousands of kids and kills hundreds of infants each year in the United States alone!

Other things Paul Thomas and Larry Palevsky get wrong:

  • the protection from Beyfortus lasts the entire RSV season and not just a few weeks or months
  • none of the deaths in the clinical trials were actually attributed to Beyfortus
  • monoclonal antibodies are hardly ‘crude,’ as they are laboratory made proteins, and so don’t have the very small risk of contamination that you might have from polyclonal antibodies from immunoglobulin products. Palevsky might not understand the ‘source of the material,’ but it is easy to figure it out by taking a few minutes and reading the package insert for Beyfortus!
  • studies have shown that Beyfortus is safe and works well to prevent RSV
  • RSV does in fact cause infection and disease in most children and adults who are exposed to it. Kids don’t get a cough and runny nose because they are creating mucus to get rid of the toxins and poisons from eating processed foods, damp foods, or sodas, etc.

And while Palevsky claims he has never seen a patient with severe RSV, this is also the guy who believed that the 2019 measles outbreak in Brooklyn, the largest in 27 years, was a hoax and that none of the kids really had measles…

Be skeptical and don’t listen to these kinds of anti-vaccine influencers who are often getting paid to push this kind of misinformation.

Misinformation that can keep you from making an informed decision.

More on RSV and Monoclonal Antibodies

Last Updated on September 30, 2024