#5-22E. Overcoming Hesitancy: How Strong Clinician Recommendations Drive Parental Preference for Maternal RSV Immunization (JAMA Netw Open, 2026)

How can we best protect our youngest patients from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in the United States? A recent national cross-sectional survey study published in JAMA Network Open investigated RSV immunization intentions, behaviors, and preferences among 1,765 parents and 174 pregnant women. The study revealed that both pregnant women and parents significantly prefer maternal vaccination over infant antibody shot administration to protect their child. Crucially, the most pivotal clinical finding is that a strong healthcare practitioner recommendation could shift positive intentions in 35.8% of pregnant women and 27.0% of parents who initially had negative or unsure intentions. However, when critically appraising this study, we must consider its cross-sectional survey design and potential selection bias, as the participants were predominantly urban, English-speaking individuals. For clinicians, these insights underscore that addressing parental information gaps and safety concerns through proactive, strong recommendations is a powerful tool to overcome vaccine hesitancy and directly improve infant RSV immunization coverage in daily practice.

Citation: Porter, R. M., Campos, I., Shoaib, M., Vogt, T. M., Orenstein, W., Bednarczyk, R. A., & Vasudevan, L. Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunization Intention During Pregnancy and Infancy. JAMA Network Open. 9(7), e2625117, 2026.

DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.25117

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