According to new research, the FDA’s decision to extend the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral medication may have contributed to the acceleration of SARS-CoV-2 mutations.
In several cases, people have complained of experiencing a second round of symptoms in what is being called “rebound illness” or “Paxlovid rebound”.
While the White House announced plans to make the antiviral medicine Paxlovid more widely available in the United States, scientists and federal agencies said they are looking into reports of Americans who say they experienced a rebound of COVID-19 shortly after finishing the course.
The drug was initially introduced to treat people who refused to get vaccinated against COVID, but the FDA later approved it for “mild to moderate” infections in those at high risk of severe COVID development, beginning at age 12, regardless of the vaccination status.
According to Patrick Jackson, assistant professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia, “Paxlovid is made up of two protease inhibitors, including one used in treating HIV as a booster medicine. Protease inhibitors are synthetic drugs that block enzymes that viruses need to replicate. The combination in Paxlovid basically prevents the coronavirus from completing its life cycle.”
The US government has been urging doctors to prescribe Pfizer medicine for the past few months. However, a growing number of patients have reported that the Pfizer medication tastes bitter, metallic, or like grapefruit juice mixed with soap, and some had more serious side effects as they reported experiencing a second round of symptoms. And when the pills were over they went back to testing positive, a phenomenon that’s become known as “Paxlovid rebound.”
Pfizer reported that one to two percent of people taking the medication experienced a rebound.
“The company says the rates of rebound in the treated group in its study and among those receiving placebo were similar, indicating that “elevated nasal viral RNA is uncommon and not uniquely associated with treatment.”
It’s also a hit with double-boosted federal officials. Vice President Kamala Harris took Paxlovid for her asymptomatic COVID infection this spring, and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci. Apparently, Fauci, 81, contracted COVID-19 about two weeks ago and initially experienced mild symptoms from the disease. He is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice. But when his symptoms worsened because of his advanced age, doctors prescribed a five-day regimen of Paxlovid to treat him. But this Wednesday, Fauci revealed that he’s experiencing a “rebound” of coronavirus symptoms after taking Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid.
“It was sort of what people are referring to as a Paxlovid rebound,” Fauci said while speaking via teleconference to the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum.
Fauci said he began to feel “really poorly” and “much worse than in the first go-around.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a health advisory on the matter of those coronavirus patients who have experienced a similar “rebound” of symptoms after taking Paxlovid.
“Paxlovid continues to be recommended for early-stage treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 among persons at high risk for progression to severe disease,” the CDC said, “A brief return of symptoms may be part of the natural history of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) infection in some persons, independent of treatment with Paxlovid and regardless of vaccination status.”
Respiratory specialist Peter Wark of the Australia’s University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute said that the study, however, shows it was “inevitable” that resistance would emerge.
Pfizer “will make $20 billion+ from this drug, and they still have not provided a positive randomized trial in vaccinated people,” according to University of California San Francisco epidemiologist Vinay Prasad noting that behind the push for Paxlovid, he sees political motivations.
“The worry of course is that need to be seen as offering something for political rather than medical reasons, They need to limit cases right at the moment of the midterm elections, “ Prasad said, “The other concern is that clearly Pfizer has excess product, and this move will help them unload that supply. Are they merely working in Pfizer’s best interest?”
Watch it here: Youtube/CBS News
Sources: Wnd, Dailywire, Meaww
