Washington Post Paxlovid lowers risk of serious illness and hospitalization, and may help prevent long covid, yet many patients don’t use the drug. The antiviral drug Paxlovid can significantly reduce symptoms of covid-19 and dramatically lower the risk of severe illness or dying of the disease. Yet many eligible people aren’t using it, and some doctors still hesitate to prescribe it.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health found that only about 15 percent of eligible people took the drug. Experts aren’t certain why some people decline to take Paxlovid, but anecdotally patients say they are worried about side effects or the risk of “rebound” covid.
Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California at San Francisco, said that over time, people have become less fearful of getting covid. “If you’re over 75 and you’re immune compromised, you hear all these stories of nothing happening to lots of people,” Chin-Hong said. “You just get lulled into this sense of complacency.” We spoke with several experts about Paxlovid, who should use it, its side effects and the risks of rebound covid. Here’s what they had to say.
Who should take Paxlovid?
Paxlovid is only effective if it is taken within five days of the first covid symptoms. Some people want to delay taking the drug to see if their covid symptoms get worse, but by then it could be too late for the drug to work.
“If you take it right at that five-day mark, it’s possible the damage has already been done where the virus has already had its impact on the lungs, you’re already having an inflammatory response,” said Scott Roberts, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at the Yale School of Medicine. “Before that viral load really starts ramping up, you have the potential to really knock it down and blunt the overall impact.”
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