Paxlovid, the antiviral drug touted for its ability to keep high-risk COVID-19 patients out of the hospital, works very well for seniors but provides little benefit for people younger than 65, concluded the authors of a study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers in Israel tracked more than 100,000 people who got COVID-19 from January to March 2022, when Omicron was widespread. About 4,000 of those people took Paxlovid. Seniors who took the antiviral saw significant benefits: a 73% lower chance of being hospitalized and a 79% lower chance of dying, compared to those of a similar age who didn’t get the drug. But among people ages 40 to 64, Paxlovid provided no statistically significant benefit.
At first, Paxlovid seemed like a key tool for society’s journey back to “normal.” With vaccines plus the powerful antiviral pills available, the hope was that infections would only rarely lead to severe outcomes or death, making COVID-19 a more manageable disease. Paxlovid still is benefiting older adults and younger people who are immunocompromised by lowering their risk of hospitalization and death. But as research on Paxlovid mounts, the drug is appearing less universally impressive.
Beyond its apparently limited benefits for most younger and lower-risk people, the drug can come with unpleasant side effects (like a foul aftertaste and gastrointestinal distress), interacts with some other medications, and seems to cause “rebound” infections more often than initial data suggested. Just yesterday, First Lady Jill Biden tested positive after first testing negative following a course of Paxlovid; the same thing happened to President Joe Biden a few weeks ago.
There’s still a lot we don't know about how best to use Paxlovid, says my colleague Alice Park, who has been covering the drug for months. “Age could be one consideration, and researchers are also investigating how long people should be on the medication, since some say the five-day treatment course may be too short to really suppress the virus and stop the rebound infections that so many are reporting now,” she says.
More than 598.5 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12:30 p.m. E.T. today, and nearly 6.5 million people have died. On Aug. 24, there were 861,801 new cases and 2,959 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 over 93.9 million million coronavirus cases as of 12:30 p.m. E.T. today. More than 1.04 million people have died. On Aug. 24, there were 150,972 new cases reported in the U.S., and 933 deaths were confirmed.
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 Aug. 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
You may be able to get another booster shot in just a couple of weeks, the New York Times reports. The Biden Administration is reportedly gearing up for another booster campaign to begin shortly after Labor Day—this time, using next-generation vaccines designed to target Omicron variants. The shots, which would reportedly be available to people 12 and older, haven’t yet been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but a top agency official told the Times he is “extremely confident” in their safety and efficacy. Next week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet to discuss the new boosters.
Up to 4 million U.S. adults are currently out of work because of Long COVID, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution. The report, which uses survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, says that about 16 million working-age Americans have Long COVID—long-lasting, potentially debilitating symptoms following a case of COVID-19—and 2 to 4 million of them aren’t working. That translates to at least $170 billion in lost wages each year.
A Congressional investigation found that Trump Administration officials pressured FDA regulators to reauthorize a discredited drug early in the pandemic, the Associated Press reports. The FDA initially authorized hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug touted by the Trump Administration as a promising COVID-19 treatment, before reversing course when it was proven ineffective. Dr. Stephen Hahn, the FDA’s former commissioner, told Congressional investigators that Trump aides repeatedly pressured him to reauthorize the drug even after it was shown not to work against COVID-19, in an apparent attempt to override the FDA’s scientific review process.
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 Jamie Ducharme and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
沒有留言:
張貼留言