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People appear to be more likely to experience a Covid rebound if they take Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid, a study suggests.
In recent months, President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky all quickly tested positive again after they stopped taking the drug.
Scientists at Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, compared 127 infected people who took Paxlovid with 43 others who beat the virus without the drug.
They found that 14 percent of Paxlovid users tested positive for the virus in the weeks following recovery. Meanwhile, only nine percent tested positive again in the group that did not take the antiviral.
The study was small, and the researchers aren’t confident the results weren’t a coincidence, but they aim to keep it up in a future trial involving 800 people.
The exact causes of the rebound are unknown, but doctors suspect it is due to the way the drug works. Instead of outright killing the virus, Paxlovid stop its replication within the body.
Experts theorize that after being suppressed by Paxlovid, Covid bounces back as the drug clears from the body, leading to high viral levels and powerful immune responses that could cause symptoms to reappear.
Notable examples of the Covid uptick include President Joe Biden, who went through an uptick after being infected with the virus in June and given Paxlovid
Two of America’s leading health officials, Dr. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were also affected.
A study shows that recipients of Paxlovid are twice as likely to either experience a symptom rebound or test positive again for COVID-19 than people who have not taken the drug.
President Joe Biden (pictured) is a strong supporter of Paxlovid and, during his State of the Union address earlier this year, announced the test-to-treat program that will free up the drug for Covid-infected Americans
The drug was announced by President Biden as one of the silver bullets to fight the pandemic during his 2022 State of the Union address.
Paxlovid was at the center of its ‘test to treat’ Covid program launched earlier this year, which it offered to Americans who tested positive for the virus at select pharmacies.
It is prescribed as three pills taken twice a day for five days
The studywhich is available in pre-print and pending peer review, collected data from 170 patients.
Each of the patients was offered Paxlovid after testing positive for the virus. Among them, 127 accepted the offer, while 43 chose not to take the drug.
Patients also received 12 COVID-19 tests at home and were instructed to test themselves every other day.
They reported test results and daily symptoms to researchers.
In the weeks after completing the course, 18 people in the Paxlovid group, or 14 percent, tested positive for the virus again.
Another 22, or 19 percent of the study group, reported that their Covid symptoms had returned, but did not register a positive test.
In the control group, only four testes were positive again – nine percent – while three symptoms recurred despite negative smears – or seven percent.
Overall, 33 percent of Paxlovid users and 16 percent of non-users experienced either a recovery from symptoms or a positive test after recovering from the virus.
Dr. Michael Charness, chief of staff of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, told CNN: “Evidence suggests that symptomatic rebound is more common in Paxlovid-treated participants than in untreated controls, but larger numbers are needed to draw confident conclusions.”
It is believed that about two to seven percent of people taking Paxlovid to treat the virus will experience a rebound.
The findings of this study, while small, suggest that the actual rate of rebounds after taking the drug is much higher.
The rate of bounce-back is probably seriously underestimated, as many do not seek medical attention after a rebound and instead show symptoms at home.
This study is another setback for Paxlovid, which was heralded as a pandemic game-changer when it first launched in late 2021.
Clinical trials showed that it reduced the chance of hospitalization or death caused by the virus by 90 percent.
President Biden announced the drug during his annual State of the Union address in March.
He made it the centerpiece of the nation’s test-to-treat program, which makes it available for free to any American who tests positive for the virus.
Reports began appearing in May that users of the drug were experiencing symptoms. The CDC would issue an alert in the coming weeks confirming these reports.
“Paxlovid is still recommended for the early stage treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in individuals at high risk of progression to severe disease,” the CDC wrote in the notice.
“…A brief recurrence of symptoms may be part of the natural history of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) infection in some individuals, regardless of Paxlovid treatment and regardless of vaccination status.”
These cases are usually mild and there are no known deaths from the bounce back.