But it’s not because one politician made the decision to call another politician “Paxlovid” before the midterm elections. Instead, there has been potentially encouraging news about the antiviral drug in the long term. A new study described in a preprint uploaded on November 5 on medRxiv found that those who took Paxlovid within five days of testing positive for covid-19 were 26% less likely to have continued to enjoy prolonged covid symptoms. This is encouraging because our society still lacks things to do to save it from the long Covid, otherwise known as post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 or has persistent symptoms after recovering from a coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome. However, I took all the conclusions of this examination with one grain of salt or maybe two, three or even twenty-seven grains of salt, because it had a number of limitations.
Of course, Paxlovid, which is the name of the Pfizer logo for the mixture of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, is meant to prevent the virus from treating your body’s cells as reasonable motels and replicating in them if you take the drug soon enough after you’ve been infected. Of course, having fewer viruses in your framework is a smart thing to do because, in general, “mo virus, mo problems”. Accredited clinical journal. Also, taking Paxlovid is not like taking Fish candies. It can interact with a number of other medications. So borrowing the call from this HBO TV series from the 2000s starring Larry David and Cheryl Hines, reduce your enthusiasm a bit for now. .
For the study, 3 researchers from St. PetersburgLouis (Yan Xie, Taeyoung Choi, and Ziyad Al-Aly) searched the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs physical care databases. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention was using the U. S. to locate patients who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from March 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022. If you remember, it was when Omicron variants were the alpha-dog versions of SARS-CoV-2, which fueled a new wave of Covid-19. The researchers narrowed down this organization of patients to those who had at least one risk factor, meaning they were more likely to progress to a severe form of covid-19, such as being over 60, smoking tobacco recently or having a body mass index greater than 25, cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, immune disorder, or hypertension. They also excluded other people hospitalized at the time of the positive test, who died within 30 days of being diagnosed with Covid-19, already had liver disease, or already had very significant kidney problems.
In this remaining organization of more than 56,000 veterans, the trio of researchers met 9,217 who had taken Paxlovid within five days of testing positive for covid-19. They then opted for a matched control organization of 47,123 veterans who had not obtained any antiviral drugs. or Covid-19 antibodies in their acute phase of their SARS-CoV-2 infections. They tried to ensure that distributions of key demographic characteristics, such as age and sex, were similar in Paxlovid and in control organizations.
One of the main limitations is that the population studied is not exactly very diverse. The average age is around 65 years with a popular deviation of 13. 93 years. Almost three-quarters (74. 59%) were white. It is also largely a “you have a man” situation, with 87. 64% men.
COVID-19 vaccination rates among study patients were higher than those in the general U. S. population. In the U. S. , just over 83% received at least one dose of the vaccine compared to 80. 2%. However, that figure was lower than the 91. 2% of U. S. adults who gained at least one dose of the vaccine.
Once Paxlovid and the teams were identified, the researchers reviewed the patients’ medical records to find out what happened to them next. The researchers looked at who ended up presenting with one of the following 12 long-term Covid problems: ischemic center disease, dysrhythmia, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, fatigue, liver disease, acute kidney injury, muscle pain, diabetes, neurocognitive disorders, shortness of breath, and cough. They made us think who had been hospitalized and who had also died.
In both the short and long term, the organization treated with Paxlovid was 26% less likely to have suffered prolonged covid symptoms after the initial infection. He was also less likely to have experienced ten of the 12 prolonged covid disorders the researcher was looking for. Well, practically all in addition to a new diagnosis of diabetes and cough. Those from the Paxlovid organization were also 30% less likely to have been hospitalized and 48% less likely to have died from Covid-19 than those from the organization.
This all sounds promising. Before jumping into a mosh pit of other people without masks, think that this was just a preprint. Anyone with an internet connection, opposable thumbs, and some free time can download a preprint from a website. This pre-release has not yet been peer-reviewed. A preprint is for a peer-reviewed publication in a reputable clinical journal what a user presenting a superhero movie with their cats on YouTube is for a genuine “Avengers” movie screened in the theater.
Furthermore, such an observational cohort study can only show arrangements or correlations, which does not necessarily mean that cause and effect are at play. For example, two variables may be related without a causal relationship. For example, Wayne W. LaMorte, MD, PhD, MPH, of the Boston University School of Public Health, noted that there is a statistical correlation between the number of other people who have drowned in a swimming pool and the number of movies by Nicolas Cage. . made in a given year. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone deserves to freak out if Cage makes the decision to film “Leaving Las Vegas Again” or “Ghost Rider 3. ” OK, maybe that last one would be a problem, but the fact is that other unmeasured items can influence the effects in an observational cohort study. It is not clear if the VA patients taking Paxlovid were different in other unmeasured tactics from those in the groups. For example, is it likely that only those taking Paxlovid wore face masks, maintained social distancing, and took other Covid-19 precautions in order to be exposed to lower infectious doses of the virus in the first place? Could those taking Paxlovid have had greater access to physical care in general?
Also, you can never literally draw false conclusions from a singles study. It would be like judging the TV series “Heroes” and “Riverdale” based only on their first seasons. This new series was derailed when Kevin started fetishing. Videos tickling for money. More studies are needed to check if and how much Paxlpovid can lessen the threat of prolonged Covid.
There is a need for more tactics to save you from the long Covid-19, which is becoming increasingly common. [ ] (Photo via Martin Pope/SOPA Images/LightRocket Getty Images)
However, it is useful to know that Paxlovid could reduce your risk of contracting a prolonged Covid. Of course, the most effective way to contract a prolonged Covid is not to contract Covid-19 in the first place. Being vaccinated and reinforced can also reduce your risk somewhat, potentially by 30 to 50 percent. But researchers yearn to find other tactics to reduce the risk of prolonged covid because, as long as the pandemic continues, adapting to prolonged covid is a big concern. And the pandemic isn’t over, no matter what politicians may tell you ahead of the midterm elections.
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