On December 22nd the Food and Drug Administration approved Paxlovid™ to treat early cases of COVID.  The regimen comprises two tablets of inmatrelvir an antiviral and one tablet of ritonavir that serves as potentiator.  The three pills are taken together twice daily for up to five consecutive days.  The cost of treatment is $530 per patient. This obviously compares unfavorably with a protective series of three mRNA vaccines at approximately $20 each. Pfizer will be able to make available sufficient doses to treat 65,000 patients immediately with 200,000 treatment courses during January 2022.  It is emphasized that Paxlovid is for treatment of clinical cases of COVID and is not a preventive drug. 

With this FDA approval, non-vaccinated patients facing hospitalization and possible intubation in an ICU ward will have available a scientifically proven treatment.  This will obviate the demands and threats by both patients and relatives for physicians to administer inappropriate and in some cases deleterious drugs including ivermectin a veterinary anti-parasitic and the now discredited hydoxychloroquine, a drug to prevent malaria as a therapeutic agent.

Although cases of COVID are surging in the U.S. due to the introduction of the Omicron variant, hospitalization rates are not increasing in direct proportion, attributed to the reality that Omicron may be less pathogenic than the Delta variant that previously predominated in the U.S.  Unfortunately additional cases due to the more infectious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 will translate eventually into higher hospital admissions but not necessarily fatalities.  The approval of Paxlovid™ and other drugs to follow will allow for home treatment and presumably reduce the demand for admissions to hospitals that currently are close to maximum capacity.

EGG-NEWS urges those not yet vaccinated to receive a protective series and to exercise commonsense procedures to avoid infection. For those who have received the third booster dose, masking in public, testing in the event of symptoms or before travel, are recommended by public health authorities. We must as a Nation raise the level of population immunity to suppress COVID and restore our economy and pre-COVID way of life.