Paxlovid is reportedly effective in preventing severe illness and death for people who get COVID; however, a new study that looked at a million high-risk people with COVID-19 found that only 15% of them took the drug.
The study was conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
If half of the eligible patients had used Paxlovid during the study period, around 48,000 people could still be alive.
KNX News’ Chief News Correspondent Charles Feldman spoke to Dennis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at City University of New York, about the study.
“Increasingly, what we're seeing is despite high awareness among people who should be taking Paxlovid, the uptake is still low. And the reasons probably relate to poor access to the health care system, which you need in order to get a prescription,” Nash said. “And also reluctance by some healthcare providers to prescribe it even when it's, you know, readily and importantly indicated for some people.”
There are some cases where people are beyond a window when Paxlovid would be useful, which is within five days after symptoms start. However, Nash said there are other cases where there’s a reluctance to prescribe, even when people are at a high risk.
“That appears to be just because providers are poorly informed or they're concerned about side effects or they're concerned about drug interactions that patients may have if they're on other drugs,” he said.
There is an issue related to drug interactions that need to be managed, but Nash said that it’s readily manageable.
The other point that Nash mentioned is inaccessibility due to healthcare shortfalls.
“We live in a country where access to the healthcare system is limited to those that have, you know, health insurance or a direct connection to a healthcare provider,” he said.
People need a healthcare provider – in most cases – to get access to Paxlovid, Nash said. This can cause a delay in getting access to the medication in time to benefit from it.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
