21–30 of 88 posts
I have quite a bit of anecdata that Paxlovid works very well in helping very sick elderly people stay out of the hospital.
I was vaccinated, got COVID. At no point were my symptoms serious. Because of age and past heart issues I was given paxlovid. Two weeks after the paxlovid (or something like that) I became sick again, more seriously. With COVID. The symptoms I experienced were much worse but not life threatening and I recovered fully. However, it was odd that the COVID came roaring back. My conjecture is that the paxlovid suppressed COVID, but that caused my body to falter in terms of building immunity. So when the paxlovid wore off, I was actually worse off. In the same situation I would NOT take the paxlovid again unless it was clear I had serious symptoms - like I was going to end up hospitialized. I acknowledge there is no science here, but on the other hand none of the doctors were able to suggest why I had a second episode so quickly and why it was more severe.
My conclusion is that there was a lot of guessing, placebo, reassuring, best guessing going on. I think that is the take away if we face such a thing again.
I find it wholly consistent with the entire "Have Faith in Science" trend of the COVID years for someone to say something like this.
I think it very likely that we don't know and shouldn't assume.
My experience was odd. And this is just a description with no science. I was vaccinated, got COVID. At no point were my symptoms serious. Because of age and past heart issues I was given paxlovid. Two weeks after the paxlovid (or something like that) I became sick again, more seriously. With COVID. The symptoms I experienced were much worse but not life threatening and I recovered fully. However, it was odd that the…
Fuck me! Only for rich muppets then?
In my local Boots chemist Aspirin is about £2.00 for 28 tablets.
Paxlovid is a combination of 2 medicines called nirmatrelvir and ritonavir. Nirmatrelvir stops the virus from growing and spreading, and ritonavir helps nirmatrelvir from being broken down in your body long enough to do its job.
Fuck me! again.
For most people now, the whole reason to take Paxlovid is the avoid long covid. The hospitalization risk is less of a concern. The article points out at the end that this drug has shown evidence of avoiding long covid.
Thanks.
My experience was odd. And this is just a description with no science. I was vaccinated, got COVID. At no point were my symptoms serious. Because of age and past heart issues I was given paxlovid. Two weeks after the paxlovid (or something like that) I became sick again, more seriously. With COVID. The symptoms I experienced were much worse but not life threatening and I recovered fully. However, it was odd that the…
Always enjoy Derek Lowe's writing. n=1 here, though I've heard others say the same -- but I (fairly healthy 30s male, vaccinated) found Paxlovid massively reduced symptom intensity for me. Within a day my symptoms went from "top 5 fevers I've ever experienced, normal function significantly impaired" to "feels like a cold; can reasonably handle myself around the house and even take a software engineering interview". I…
How do you know that it was Paxlovid that made you better, rather than coincidentally convalescing? There's a tendency for fevers to break as the body gets the upper hand on an infection, so if you started taking Paxlovid during a high fever your body might have been nearly done mopping up. I'm not saying Paxlovid didn't help you, just that it's tricky to distinguish from placebo without a study.
Derek doesn't have to take Paxlovid next time, but I will.