HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

FDA authorizes Pfizer COVID antiviral pill for high-risk individuals

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/22/2021 9:27 AM (GMT -8)
FDA authorizes Pfizer COVID antiviral pill for high-risk individuals

{The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized Pfizer's antiviral pill for the treatment of individuals at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

Why it matters: At-home COVID-19 treatments, especially Pfizer's Paxlovid, are seen as possible game-changers for the pandemic. The emergency use authorization comes as the U.S. sees a surge in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations largely driven by the Omicron variant.

Driving the news: Pfizer released new data last week confirming Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in high-risk adults, Axios' Tina Reed reports.

An interim analysis of a second study of the pill has so far shown a 70% reduction in hospitalization among standard-risk adults, Pfizer said.
Pfizer also believes the Paxlovid treatment will work well against the Omicron variant because of the way the drug works.
Details: The EUA is for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and some children 12 years and older "who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death," the FDA said.}

I hope this is a game changer for us. I wonder how it affects(side effects) IBD patients
Posted 12/22/2021 6:40 PM (GMT -8)
I forgot to include the link - this was the treatment that many were waiting, a Covid specific antiviral treatment https:// https://www.axios.com/fda-pfizer-covid-antiviral-pill-paxlovid-authorization-274ee4ed-3b4e-49c1-afbf-b5861dc2ef2c.html
Posted 12/22/2021 7:58 PM (GMT -8)
Thank you Keith for posting this!

This is a game changer. I just fear that people will refuse their vaccine series and boosters now.

Clo
Posted 12/23/2021 1:14 AM (GMT -8)

clo2014 said...
Thank you Keith for posting this!

This is a game changer. I just fear that people will refuse their vaccine series and boosters now.

Clo


I suspect people who are anti-vax are also anti-FDA-approved-new-treatment. Some people who are vaccine-hesitant can also see the longer term safety record of the vaccines now that they've been used literally billions of times over 18 months. And as long as the pills are in short supply it would be foolish for the average person to count on them.
Posted 12/23/2021 5:42 AM (GMT -8)
@pooydoop, here in the US it's not just the anti-vaxxers refusing the shots, there is a great deal of mistrust over these shots by people. Without breaking the forum rules, the political scene in our country has played a huge role in people not willing to get them, I will leave it at that.

I got an email from the FDA about Paxlovid. It is a two pill combination that has to be taken together for 5 days. A person must test positive for the virus & there is a 5 day window of when symptoms appeared & the positive test.

There are some issues with HIV patients & some with kidney issues. We need therapeutics to treat this virus.
Posted 12/23/2021 5:59 AM (GMT -8)

straydog said...

There are some issues with HIV patients & some with kidney issues. We need therapeutics to treat this virus.

Patients with liver disease too.

There is a pretty long list of meds that you can’t be on and take this medication. So if you’re on one of them and get covid then you wouldn’t be able to take this new covid treatment.

It’s not a drug that I am excited to take but would take if necessary - I think vaccines and masking are the best course of action for myself. Long Covid is my biggest concern.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply