CDC's advisory committee on Thursday voted unanimously to recommend Beyfortus, a drug developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca that protects infants against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Georgia, Illinois, and New York.

• Georgia: CDC's advisory committee on Thursday voted unanimously to recommend Beyfortus, a drug developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca that protects infants against RSV. The recommendation was then adopted by CDC Director Mandy Cohen. Beyfortus is expected to be available before RSV typically starts to circulate in October for infants younger than eight months old born during their first RSV season and children ages eight to 19 months old who are at a high risk of severe RSV and are entering their second RSV season. CDC also recommended that Alaska Native and American Indian children under the age of two be included in the high-risk group due to high hospitalization rates. (Moreno, Axios, 8/3; Mast, STAT, 8/3)
•  Illinois: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on Thursday backed gender-related treatments for children and commissioned a systematic review of medical research on the treatments. The move comes after similar efforts in Europe found uncertain evidence for the treatments' effectiveness in adolescents. "The board has confidence that the existing evidence is such that the current policy is appropriate," said Mark Del Monte, CEO of AAP. "At the same time, the board recognized that additional detail would be helpful here." (Ghorayshi, New York Times, 8/3)
• New York: Public sector nurses at NYC Health + Hospitals have negotiated a 37% pay increase over five-and-a-half years, marking the largest raise nurses at the health system have seen to date. The New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said the raise will put nurses' salaries on par with private sector nurses and will make it easier to fill the roughly 2,000 vacancies throughout the hospital system. Sonia Lawrence, president of NYSNA's executive council for NYC Health + Hospitals/Mayorals, said she feels the union "accomplished a great victory for our nurses, but more so for the patients and the communities that we serve. The underserved, the uninsured, the underinsured, the undocumented, the asylum-seekers — I think it's a victory for all patients that have been discriminated against." (Lewis, Gothamist, 8/2)