Coronavirus FAQ: Is Paxlovid the best treatment? Is it underused in the U.S.?
It's the most effective treatment to prevent severe COVID – a pill called Paxlovid that studies show can be close to 90% effective in reducing the risk of severe disease.
And it's a global phenomenon. Pfizer, which manufactures the drug, just signed an agreement to import the drug to China, which is facing an unprecedented COVID surge this winter.
Yet here in the U.S., public health specialists say Paxlovid is underused. A poll taken in June and July by the COVID States Project, a consortium of several universities, found that among adults over 65 who tested positive since January 2022 and who are eligible for the drug because of their age, only 20% got a prescription.
What's up?
The ABCs of Paxlovid
First, let's review some basics about the drug, which came on the market in December 2021.
How does, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in an email. "So it stands to reason that interventions that prevent the virus from making more copies of itself would therefore lead to a lower risk of long COVID."
