Like human coronaviruses before SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is another of those viruses causing common colds (Nam and Ison 2021). Found worldwide, this ubiquitous virus circulates continuously with cases peaking in the winter months. Typically, the virus produces a mild and self-limiting upper respiratory tract infection. The clinical presentation includes the usual cold symptoms of headache, slight fever, congested or runny nose, a dry cough, and sometimes a sore throat. Recovery is within a week or two, although throat irritation and coughing can persist longer. Once recovered there are no post-infection after effects and some immunity to reinfection is generated. While the immunity may not completely prevent subsequent infections it does reduce their severity. Being just an occasional nuisance for most people, RSV generally doesn’t receive much public attention and lacks the name recognition of more serious viral diseases. However, this inconspicuous virus is not without clinical significance. Two population groups are particularly susceptible to more serious RSV infections, infants (<1 year of age) and the elderly (over 65 years of age). In both these cohorts, RSV can progress to serious and potentially fatal lower respiratory tract infections. In the United States, RSV is the leading cause of infant hospitalizations (Suh et al. 2022), and this trend extends globally with an estimated 3.2 million infant hospitalizations each year from RSV (Shi et al. 2017). Importantly, RSV causes approximately 100,000 infant deaths each year worldwide, with the heaviest burden in countries with limited healthcare capabilities (Cohen and Zar 2022). Similar to the clinical risk in infants, the elderly are also prone to more severe cases of RSV, and the risk is likely underestimated (McLaughlin et al. 2022). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that there are 60,000–160,000 RSV hospitalizations of the elderly each year in the U.S. with 6000–10,000 deaths annually. It is the combined impact on these two vulnerable populations that spurred vaccine development for this virus, although it would take nearly 70 years after discovery to finally have a successful vaccine.