ALERT: Botched RSV rollout leaves babies and pregnant women at risk

Australia’s RSV public health campaign has been marred by serious medical errors, including dosing mistakes, off-label use, and the wrong vaccine given to pregnant women.

A public health campaign meant to protect Australians from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has backfired—leaving pregnant women and newborns injected with the wrong pharmaceutical products.

Over the past 18 months, the nation’s RSV response has descended into chaos.

Pregnant women were given vaccines never approved for use during pregnancy. Babies received products approved only for adults or pregnant women. And young women were injected with antibodies developed specifically for infants.

As of June 2025, at least 84 confirmed medication errors have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the national medicines regulator.

Experts say the mistakes were not just avoidable—they were foreseeable and potentially harmful.