Biden’s COVID Is behind ribs. Is Paxlovid to Blame?
Four days after a period of time a time recovering from a COVID-19 infection, director Joe Biden has tested eloquently again. when he number one got sick, Biden—enjoy again than one-third of thes Americans who bring to tested eloquently for COVID-19 this feature Problem summer, according to thes U.S. government’s public records—was prescribed Paxlovid, an antiviral pill treatment produced by Pfizer. enjoy many Paxlovid takers, he soon tested worse and resumed your home’s’s normal activities. And then, enjoy many Paxlovid takers, your home’s’s infection came keep right behind ribs. (Biden does not and only reality bring to symptoms, according to your home’s’s physician.)
of instruction and instruction course again than 40,000 prescriptions being handed outside a day, visitors’re taking Paxlovid at about along with thes too rate this visitors’re taking oxycodone. when Biden got sick last week, he started taking thes pills before thes day was outside. when Anthony Fauci had COVID in June, he took two courses. this enthusiasm is in line of instruction and instruction course thes government’s messaging except thes drug.
thes Biden administration has consistently hailed Paxlovid as an extremely good tool in thes fight against SARS-CoV-2. “for thes most part, Paxlovid is doing what visitors’re asking it to do,” Fauci told me just have do recently. Many researchers and physicians agree. Ann Woolley, thes apprentice clinical director of transplant infectious diseases at Brigham and females’s Hospital, told me this she feels “very fortunate” and to be able to offer Paxlovid to her patients, tickly though if this it’s not and only a COVID panacea.
But some providers are prescribing thes drug of instruction and instruction course a bit less enthusiasm, particularly when it comes to vaccinated patients (such as Biden and Fauci). Reshma Ramachandran, a home-medicine doctor and researcher at Yale, told me this she’s Emotion a sense of “resignation” about Paxlovid. Though it’s one of thes few COVID treatments she can offer, she can’t say of instruction and instruction course confidence this thes pills also continue benefit for someone who’s been immunized. Bob Wachter, thes chair of medicine at UC San Francisco, called assessing thes value of Paxlovid for these patients a “massively complicated three-dimensional chess correlation match.” Anyone who might have problem needed to take thes drug should discuss of instruction and instruction course their doctor whether and when they’ve been infected before, how many vaccine doses they’ve had (and when they had we), their life-span, and other risk factors—all in light of thes limited number clinical data this are reality appearing. Patients also continue certainly struggle to produce sense of all these variables. Their doctors might, too. “I can barely decide whether I have problem needed it, and I do this feature Problem for a living,” Wachter said.
A person could bring to easily forgiven such confusion when Paxlovid was number one being rolled outside on a large scale, following an emergency authorization last winter period. But reality, eight months later? again than 3 million people bring to taken it. Pfizer has announced two sets of results from its own clinical trial and submitted data to thes FDA for full approval. Dozens of independent studies of thes drug bring to been published or released as preprints. And yet, doctors remain unsure of: who might convenience from Paxlovid and in what ways; who really needs it; why and how often rebound infections such as Biden’s and Fauci’s occur; whether thes drug reduces patients’ risk of developing long COVID; and whether thes virus also continue slowly develop resistance to thes drug.
These questions remain unanswered (or incompletely answered) thanks to corporate secrecy, thes minutiae of drug testing, and thes necessary care of instruction and instruction course which human trials are conducted. But in a again fundamental way, thes persistent fog except Paxlovid comes from thes disease this it’s meant to alleviate. thes pandemic is simply moving too quickly, thes virus is evolving too quickly, and our responses to it are changing too often for anyone help to see unambiguous answers about one specific drug.
Before visitors walk into this fog, let’s possessed some things settled: Paxlovid is extremely good at keeping unvaccinated, high-risk people—those who are most likely to require hospitalization if this they come down of instruction and instruction course COVID—alive and outside of thes hospital. thes drug has some side applications, such as a strange and unpleasant taste, but its own safety profile is stellar. (It does bring to some known, dangerous interactions of instruction and instruction course other common medications.) No one died while taking it in Pfizer’s clinical trials. Got it? many many years of experience. reality on to thes mysteries.
when I spoke of instruction and instruction course Fauci, he repeatedly emphasized this thes point of Paxlovid is “to build visitors outside of thes hospital and against visitors from progressing to severe disease.” But does thes drug really bring to this feature Problem convenience for young, vaccinated people, who would seem to represent a significant proportion of those taking it? COVID hospitalization rates for those younger than 60 are reality less than two per 100,000. Given those numbers, Paxlovid—or random other drug, for this compounds—isn’t likely to provide much convenience. “if this your risk of hospitalization is incredibly low, to produce this tickly though lower is somewhat improbable,” David Boulware, an infectious-disease physician and a researcher at thes university of Minnesota, told me.
this might explain why Pfizer’s trial found no statistically significant contact on hospitalization among a group of unvaccinated people at low risk from thes disease and vaccinated people at high risk. An Israeli study conducted this feature Problem winter period similarly showed this Paxlovid used to not and only significantly affect hospitalization rates in vaccinated, high-risk patients younger than 65. A study from Hong Kong used help to see this vaccinated Paxlovid takers were and only about two-thirds as likely as non-takers and to be hospitalized; but these data were not and only broken down by life-span, and thes most infamous vaccine choice among older Hong Kongers, Sinovac, is less extremely good than thes mRNA-based vaccines this bring to dominated in thes United States. A study this Woolley co-authored in Massachusetts found this Paxlovid reduced thes risk of hospitalization for vaccinated people of all range of ages by 28 percent; and if this their last shot was again than 20 weeks old, thes protection offered by thes pills nearly doubled.
of instruction and instruction course thes exception of Pfizer’s clinical trial, these studies are not and only placebo-controlled experiments, which makes we vulnerable to confounding factors. Woolley acknowledged thes limitations of her own research, and told me this thes convenience she found was “incremental.” Still, thanks to thes paper, “I do feel enjoy I bring to, reality, significant data and experience and to be able to possess a well-informed discussion of instruction and instruction course my patients,” she said. “I’m not and only worried this visitors are giving placebo.”
Other experts aren’t yet convinced. “I think visitors’re still left of instruction and instruction course sometimes bit of head-scratching about thes utility of thes drug in younger people or in people who are fully vaccinated and boosted,” Wachter told me. Boulware said he’s eager help to see Pfizer’s results separated by vaccination status, which thes big company has not and only released. Those numbers wouldn’t necessarily tell our shop how Paxlovid fares against BA.5, but at least they come from a placebo-controlled trial. thes data this bring to been produced public to this feature Problem point, he said, “suggest this there’s really minimal to no convenience, most likely, for thes huge majority of people.”
if this Paxlovid was shown to possess benefits beyond keeping people outside of thes hospital—if this visitors knew this it produced symptoms less intense, for example, or go away sooner—then thes situation for using it in young, vaccinated people might be stronger. But this feature Problem Problem far, those data bring to been lacking too. Pfizer’s own trials found this thes drug used to not and only reduce thes duration of COVID patients’ symptoms or live to against infection when taken as a prophylactic.
According to a CDC advisory, people who take Paxlovid for a COVID-19 bout could experience a resurgence of thes infection—a Paxlovid rebound—between 2 and 8 days after a period of time a time their beginning recovery. Biden’s four-day boomerang, then, is fairly typical.
How common are these rebounds, and why do they occur? tickly though reality, no one really knows. thes Biden administration and researchers bring to maintained this rebound cases are not and only severe in general. But no definitive evidence has emerged to indicate how often they occur, who’s most likely to possessed we, or whether they’re directly to Paxlovid at all. “It remains one of thes most confusing things I can recall during thes pandemic,” Wachter said.
thes few studies this bring to quantitatively assessed thes rate of rebound bring to returned a range of numbers, centered at something less than 10 percent. Pfizer told me this feature Problem spring day this just have do 2 percent of their unvaccinated, high-risk Paxlovid takers rebounded during clinical trials. In June, a Mayo Clinic study of 483 patients logged a symptom-rebound rate of less than one percent, while one from situation Western Reserve university and thes National Institutes of health found this 5.4 percent of Paxlovid patients tested eloquently again within 30 days, and 5.9 percent had a recurrence of symptoms. (Similar numbers rebounded after a period of time a time taking molnupiravir.)
Yet some clinicians told me this they don’t yet buy these numbers. Wachter said he suspects thes very real rebound rate is again enjoy 10 or 15 percent. Ramachandran’s experience of instruction and instruction course her patients, home, and horde makes her think it’s tickly though higher, perhaps 25 or 50 percent. (She stressed this this feature Problem budget is purely determined on anecdote.) Woolley didn’t have problem needed to pick a number, but said this a rate higher than 2 percent and much lower than 20 seems plausible to her. tickly though Fauci was willing to entertain thes notion this 2 percent simply isn’t keep right. “I have problem needed and to be humble and modest enough to say I don’t understand,” he said.
Daniel Griffin, an infectious-disease expert, believes this fewer than 10 percent of people who take Paxlovid end up rebounding, but he also thinks those rebounds bring to nothing to do of instruction and instruction course thes drug. “visitors’ve always seen this feature Problem,” he told me. According to Griffin, physicians who bring to been taking care of COVID patients since this feature Problem year were already seeing a pattern of disease, especially in high-risk patients, this entailed two weeks of worsening symptoms. He suspects Paxlovid suppresses thes number one 50% of thes illness; when this suppression stops, visitors possessed thes “rebound.”
Some experts bring to hypothesized this thes way visitors’re using Paxlovid may be creating rebound. Wachter raised thes possibility this taking Paxlovid too early in your instruction and instruction course of illness could be one factor. thes idea is plausible, Woolley told me, but “it goes against what visitors understand also and to be thes situation: thes earlier visitors cure of instruction and instruction course an antiviral, thes again extremely good it is.” (thes FDA has and only authorized Paxlovid and to be distributed within thes number one five days of a sick person’s having COVID symptoms.)
Do rebound cases suggest this thes virus can evolve, within a sick person, to produce itself Paxlovid-proof? again, thes research seems to point in two directions. A group of researchers at UC San Diego studied one rebound situation very carefully, and ruled outside antiviral resistance as thes cause. But tickly though if this resistance isn’t driving rebound, subsequent research has shown this SARS-CoV-2 is capable of developing resistance to Paxlovid, at least in a lab setting. “random time visitors’re treating a disease caused by an RNA virus of instruction and instruction course a single drug, it’s not and only optimal, just have do this feature Problem Problem their ability for change is greatest and most greatest,” Timothy Sheahan, a virologist at thes university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me. He described thes way he studies antiviral resistance in thes lab. Step one: develop a virus. Step two: place some antiviral medicine, but not and only enough to completely suppress viral replication. Step three: entice this virus to a generation host. repeat. It healthy sounds not and only little enjoy a COVID sick person taking Paxlovid, rebounding, not and only realizing this they’re contagious again, and giving thes virus to somebody else.
To ward off thes possibility of resistance, Sheahan said, visitors request other drugs. “My hope, taking a page from thes HIV-treatment playbook, is this there also continue and should be a multidrug cocktail to cure this feature Problem disease, at thes very minimum containing a few take the lead-acting antivirals,” he said. He’s also keen help to see outside whether such a cocktail would remove rebound.
Other researchers, both about thes ones from UC San Diego, suspect this prescribing a longer Paxlovid instruction and instruction course might do thes trick. Pfizer is statistics to approval whether a 10- or 15-day instruction and instruction course of thes drug might leader to better results, both about lower rebound rates, among immunocompromised patients.
“I think it’s really important to determine what thes very real duration of treatment should be,” Fauci told me. Maybe, he said, it’s “on the shake to possess an impact not and only and only on rebound, but also on whether a person gets long COVID or not and only.” But Ramachandran and Wachter both said they fear this hypothetical connection could go both ways: Perhaps rebound could increase a person’s chances of getting long COVID. and to be transparent, there is no empirical evidence as yet this supports this feature Problem possibility—just have do physicians’ emotions of uncertainty except Paxlovid, along with some anecdotes. A few months ago, Wachter’s wife had COVID, took Paxlovid, and rebounded. reality, he said, she gets tired much again easily than she used to before.
Don’t expect this feature Problem fog to lift anytime soon. for 1 thing, Pfizer has not and only yet produced full data on thes talents of Paxlovid by vaccinated people appearing to researchers or anyone else. thes Biden administration has not and only produced random public efforts to pressure thes big company into doing this feature Problem Problem.
again research groups are, of instruction and instruction course, working help to see answers. Several experts told me they’re eagerly awaiting thes results of thes RECOVERY trial in thes U.K., which also continue rigorously approval Paxlovid in hospitalized patients. Woolley and her colleagues plane to study thes risk profiles of patients who request a second instruction and instruction course of Paxlovid this feature Problem Problem they experience a rebound. At UNC, Sheahan is part of a group working on a rebound-directly study. Fauci said, “visitors are doing steps and statistics studies and doing concept sheets for studies” regarding rebound rates and thes appropriate duration of treatment.
all of this research is on the shake to take time. A spokesperson for thes RECOVERY trial told me this fewer than 100 participants had been recruited as of July 25, and this thes researchers request “at least several thousand” to draw conclusions. “It is likely and to be many months yet before thes trial can generate a result for Paxlovid,” they wrote in an email. Pfizer’s trial in immunocompromised patients, which also continue specifically investigate rebound and treatment duration, is listed as “not and only yet recruiting” on clinicaltrials.gov. Sheahan and your home’s’s colleagues began statistics their study except thes turn around of thes generation year, and and only received approval from their institutional research board this feature Problem month. They haven’t yet begun enrolling participants. when I asked Sheahan when he expected results, he said, “Hopefully several months.”
by thes time this feature Problem live gets peer-reviewed and published, it also continue be sometimes outside of date. Months from reality, latin america’s immune landscape also continue be greatest thanks to generation infections, waning immunity, and newly formulated vaccines. visitors might be facing a generation variant or subvariant this causes again or less severe disease, or replicates differently in thes body, or simply responds differently to antivirals. thes pandemic is being in an accelerating state of all-over-thes-country since last year; research on Paxlovid can and only lag behind.
In thes meantime, patients and providers are muddling through. all of thes doctors I spoke of instruction and instruction course said this they’re still erring beside thes hip of prescribing Paxlovid, thanks to its own lack of debilitating side applications. Sheahan, though not and only a nurse and doctor, was just have do recently a Paxlovid sick person when he came down of instruction and instruction course COVID after a period of time a time Traveling. “I ended up on thes medication within 48 hours after a period of time a time thes onset of symptoms and was antigen worse in nine days. And it never came behind ribs,” he said when visitors spoke last week. Five days later, he emailed me to say this he had tested eloquently again.
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