The treatment can help prevent mild or moderate cases of Covid-19 from becoming more severe. Here’s what to know. Most adults in the United States have one condition or another that makes them a candidate for Paxlovid, which can cut the risk of a severe case of Covid. Obesity, diabetes, depression, heart conditions and dozens of other issues all put people at high risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And yet Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego, regularly gets calls from patients who were not able to get prescriptions, often because urgent care or primary care doctors denied their requests.
More than two years after Paxlovid became widely available in the United States, and in the middle of yet another summer surge, patients and doctors are still frequently confused about who qualifies for the medication and exactly how beneficial it might be.
It’s well-established that Paxlovid saves lives. But it can be costly, and it can interact with a lengthy list of medications. Some people avoid the drug, in part because they worry about experiencing a rebound case. One study found that only about 15 percent of people who were eligible for the medication took it when they had Covid.
“In my experience, it’s usually that the provider doesn’t have enough experience with it or enough time to want to go through somebody’s medication list,” Dr. Smith said. “So they just get told, ‘Oh, you’re going to be fine.’ And most of the time, they are fine. It’s just when they’re not, it can be really bad.”