What You Should Know About Paxlovid, the COVID-treating antiviral that President Biden Is Taking

Updated on July 22, 2022 12:08 PM by Anthony Christian

President has Covid

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement stating that "President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 this morning."

"He has received two booster shots, is fully immunized, and his symptoms are minimal. He has started taking Paxlovid.

According to CDC recommendations, he will isolate in the White House and continue to fully perform all of his duties during that period."

Symptoms

According to a statement from his doctor, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden, 79, has a runny nose, tiredness, and an infrequent dry cough that started yesterday evening. What exactly is Paxlovid used for? Here is all we currently know about it.

The antiviral medication Paxlovid was created by Pfizer. It is intended to lessen the likelihood that high-risk individuals would become seriously unwell and require hospitalization.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the drug's emergency use in December. Anyone who is at high risk for developing a serious illness may receive it as long as they are 12 years old or older and weigh at least 88 pounds.

Qualified Patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave state-licensed pharmacists permission to prescribe the medication to qualified patients in early July.

A full course of Paxlovid, which consists of 30 pills, will be recommended for someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

Two of the three pills in your dose will be nirmatrelvir, a medication that prevents the COVID-19 virus from using a crucial enzyme to produce more viruses.

The virus that is discharged from the cells cannot now reach healthy cells in the body after receiving the nirmatrelvir medication.

Ritonavir

Ritonavir, the third tablet, is a substance that is used to increase the levels of antiviral medications. Nirmatrelvir is kept in the body longer to combat the virus with the aid of ritonavir. Clinical studies for Paxlovid were conducted before omicron took over as the most common strain in the US and globally.

The medication, however, Pfizer claims, combats omicron. According to the business, in the clinical trial that backed the emergency usage authorization, the risk of hospitalization and death was decreased by 89 percent.

Combats Omicron

According to Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialists, some patients who have taken Paxlovid, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have experienced a "rebound" of COVID-19 symptoms after they have a type.

The CDC issued recommendations for clinicians in June, stating that for some people, a temporary return of symptoms may be a normal component of having a SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Although this also happened in some patients who were given a placebo, Pfizer claims that during clinical trials, several participants appeared to suffer a rebound in virus levels "around day 10 or day 14".

Placebo

The antiviral medications are a key part of q Biden's plan to assist Americans in coping with the pandemic, which was unveiled by the White House about two months ago. In order to speed up the delivery of the pills, the government collaborated with Pfizer to purchase 20 million doses of the medication.

By enabling tens of thousands of pharmacy outlets to order the medication directly from the federal government, the new effort hopes to double the number of locations where the pills are available in the coming weeks.

The administration's "Test-to-Treat" program will also be expanded, along with plans to inform healthcare professionals and the general public about the medicine.

The White House is about to launch that education campaign right now. But it's unclear how successful the administration's most recent attempts will be given the limited success in getting the people to get vaccinated and given a boost against the virus.