What Happened to Paxlovid? [View all]

Paxlovid, the COVID antiviral developed by Pfizer, was hailed as a miracle drug against COVID-19 when it was approved for use by the FDA in December. But it was nowhere to be found during the Omicron wave that followed and now is little discussed and underused, with doses reportedly piling up on pharmacy shelves. Has Paxlovid failed to live up to the hype as a pandemic game changer, or is it another effective defense against COVID that’s been unjustly snubbed by a misinformed public?

For a frontline view I turned to my brother-in-law, John Emy, a doctor of internal medicine who practices with CareMount Medical in Manhattan and has been prescribing Paxlovid to his patients with COVID. He said he’s a fan — with qualifications. “I think it’s a great drug. It’s certainly very effective. It starts working pretty quickly,” he told me over the phone while walking to work. “Usually within 24 hours, the symptoms start to improve.” He wondered how badly it was really needed, though. “It’s probably wasted on the mildly ill,” he said. “Before we had Paxlovid, plenty of people who had mild symptoms would get over it and they were fine.”

Five hours later, he texted me that he’d thought of another argument for taking Paxlovid. “By reducing viral load quickly it could reduce contagiousness,” he wrote, before dropping the lede: “I woke up feeling not great, but then much worse on the subway after I spoke with you. I have COVID.”

He was on the fence about taking Paxlovid. His symptoms were mild. He felt feverish and mentally fuzzy but his temperature was normal. As an extremely healthy marathon-runner who’s fully vaxxed, he wasn’t particularly worried about getting seriously ill. On the other hand, he’s got asthma, which is a risk factor for severe COVID. In the end, a talk with a colleague helped push him toward a decision. “I think I’d be fine without an antiviral,” he texted, “but I’m going to take it with the hope of getting back to work more quickly.”

Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/what-happened-to-paxlovid-the-covid-19-wonder-drug.html