Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash
White House officials have a plan to ramp up the availability of Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid, according to a report from Bloomberg.
White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said that the administration would announce more details about the plans to make Paxlovid more widely available in the coming week.
The administration plans to launch a test-to-treat initiative that allows recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients to receive Paxlovid at no cost.
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart plan on participating in the program.
According to White House officials, the use of oral antivirals increased 103% between March 27 and April 10.
Anecdotal evidence from a handful of patients suggests that Paxlovid also may help relieve so-called long COVID-19 symptoms, according to Reuters. However, more data are needed to confirm the drug’s efficacy in re…