Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment for COVID-19, has received less attention than vaccines, but it’s become an important tool in the fight against the pandemic. It’s one of the fastest-selling medications in history, the Financial Times reports, with its manufacturer, Pfizer, forecasting $22 billion in sales this year. Prescriptions jumped from 2,500 in December 2021 to nearly 1 million last month, health-data company Iqvia reported in data provided to TIME. Its popularity may be rooted in early findings, from before the drug was authorized, that suggest it can cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% for unvaccinated, high-risk individuals. More recent data suggest it cuts the risk of death or hospitalization by 57% for vaccinated people at lower risk of severe illness. After President Joe Biden, 79, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, he started taking Paxlovid.
However, as my colleague Alice Park reports, some patients stand to benefit much more from Paxlovid than others. Only higher risk people qualify for Paxlovid, including those over age 12 who have weakened immune systems or conditions like heart disease that put them at high risk for severe illness. Meanwhile, there's limited data showing that people who are at low risk of severe COVID-19 benefit from the drug, and data released by Pfizer in June indicated that it didn’t reduce the number of symptoms among people at moderate risk of severe disease.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an infectious disease physician, told Alice that he only prescribes Paxlovid to people over 65. However, it’s important to recognize that the drug can improve many patients’ odds of surviving COVID-19 and prevent health systems from becoming overwhelmed. Paxlovid is most effective in the first five days of symptoms appearing—which means that high-risk patients should get tested as soon as they start experiencing symptoms.
Some clinicians note that Paxlovid can interfere with common medications, including cholesterol-lowering statins. Patients who are treated with Paxlovid should also keep in mind that they could experience COVID-19 rebound—which means testing positive again after apparently recovering (although in most cases, symptoms are mild at that stage). Experts say it’s key to identify which people should and should not have access to Paxlovid in order to ensure that it’s available to those who need it most.
More than 570 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 6.38 million people have died. On July 24, there were more than 544,000 new cases and 820 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 10 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 90.4 million coronavirus cases as of 9 a.m. E.T. today. More than 1.02 million people have died. On July 24, 20,201 new cases were reported and 14 new deaths were confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 25. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
Have suggestions for our COVID-19 newsletter? We'd love to hear from you. Fill out our survey here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
President Biden’s COVID-19 symptoms “have now almost completely resolved,” his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in a letter released Monday. The President, who has received four vaccine doses, is experiencing some congestion and hoarseness, and his oxygen saturation is “excellent.”
The White House is working on a major new initiative to promote the development of “next generation” COVID-19 vaccines to address future variants and curtail infection or transmission, STAT reported today. “These are vaccines that are going to be far more durable, that are going to provide far longer-lasting protection, no matter what the virus does or how it evolves,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told STAT. The White House is hosting a summit tomorrow to begin creating a roadmap for developing the new technologies.
Many American school districts are shoring up staffing to limit disruptions during the upcoming school year, but many aren’t changing much to prevent the spread of the virus—including in those schools that experienced the most disruptions to in-person learning as a result of outbreaks, the Associated Press reports. For instance, although Baltimore County schools cumulatively reported 159 days in January when individual schools couldn’t have in-person learning, the district is not planning any major changes to protocol. “We don’t anticipate significant changes to our plan; we don’t anticipate significant disruptions,” a Baltimore County Public Schools spokesperson said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced new global COVID-19 vaccination targets on Friday, declaring that the world should prioritize reaching 100% vaccination for health care workers and vulnerable groups, including people over 60. The WHO noted that in low-income countries, only 28% of older people and 37% of health care workers are vaccinated. “Even where 70% vaccination coverage is achieved, if significant numbers of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups remain unvaccinated, deaths will continue, health systems will remain under pressure and the global recovery will be at risk,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said in a statement.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Angela Haupt.
沒有留言:
張貼留言