WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health regulators have approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the scary respiratory infection. RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s maternal vaccination to guard against a severe case of RSV when babies are most vulnerable — from birth through 6 months of age. The next step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must issue recommendations for using the vaccine, named Abrysvo, during pregnancy. Vaccinations for older adults, also at high risk, are getting underway this fall using the same Pfizer shot plus another from competitor GSK.
UNDATED (AP) — As a wealthy dentist convicted of killing his wife at the end of an African safari listened in court, her brother vowed on Monday to move her remains to a place Larry Rudolph would never discover. Vincent Finizio also predicted that Rudolph’s future grandchildren will never know he existed and that he would die “alone and unmourned.” His comments came shortly before a judge in Denver sentenced Rudolph to life in prison and imposed more than an estimated $15 million in financial penalties against him. Rudolph plans to appeal his conviction.
UNDATED (AP) — The Department of Transportation is proposing new rules designed to encourage seat belt use by car and truck passengers, including those sitting in the back seat. The new rules proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would require manufacturers to equip vehicles with additional seat belt warning systems for the right front passenger and for rear seats to encourage increased seat belt use. The proposed rules would establish a visual and audio warning for the right front passenger seat that would continue until both the driver and front passenger seats have their belts buckled. For the rear seats, the rules establish a visual notice lasting at least 60 seconds of the rear seat belt status when the vehicle is started, plus an audio warning if a rear seat belt is unbuckled while the vehicle is in operation.
UNDATED (AP) — Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000. Now, there’s just one: The Mitsubishi Mirage. At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.
