Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Receives High Recommendation For Treating COVID-19
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A senior White House official has praised the efficacy of Pfizer’s anti-COVID pill Paxlovid.
White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said the vaccines have reduced hospitalisations and saved lives during the latest wave of infection in the United States.
Jha disclosed this on Wednesday while stating the increase of the Pfizer vaccine demands. He said the demand has surged with a daily demand of an estimated 20,000 prescriptions.
He said:
“I think that is actually a really important reason why, despite this very substantial increase in infections, we have not seen a commensurate increase in deaths.
“We have seen hospitalizations rise, but again, not as much as one would have expected at this point, despite the fact that hospitalizations do lag. When you look at ICU care, the rate of ICU hospital admissions is much lower than what one would expect.”
President Joe Biden’s administration embarked on a serious effort to increase access to oral antivirals at several locations across the country.
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The CDC said Omicron’s sub-variants have increased the daily new cases to 94,000. It noted that hospitals are admitting 3000 cases daily with a death rate of 275.
During a clinical trial, Paxlovid, when taken orally for five days reduces hospitalization and deaths by almost 90 per cent.
The vaccine is a combination of two drugs.
Some patients have raised concerns about the “Paxlovid Rebound”. The concerns are that the virus is clear while patients are on treatment but they test positive after completing the treatment.
Jha noted that the issue is still being researched, “but I think it is not leading to people getting particularly sick.”
The result of the Paxlovid Clinical trial rebound was two per cent. Although the dominant variant at the time was Delta,
The rate of a rebound during Paxlovid’s clinical trial was two per cent, but the dominant variant at the time was Delta.
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He urged doctors to adopt a “relatively permissive” approach to prescribing the medicine. Especially knowing the possibility of it being high risk.
“You should not get excessively restrictive, we have plenty of supply right now,” he advised.
Jha also urged Congress to urgently provide $22.5 billion in COVID funding. He said that this would enable the government to ensure the supply of next-generation Covid Ovid vaccines.
He also raised fears that Americans could be left behind.
“Other countries are in conversations with the manufacturers and starting to advance their negotiations.
“I think it’d be terrible, I think we’d see a lot of unnecessary loss of life if that were to happen,” he said.
He assured that Biden’s administration would try to provide vaccines to those at the highest risk.
Source: PUNCH HealthWise
