Anthony Fauci's Covid-19 nightmare continues with REBOUND symptoms after Paxlovid treatment
Dr Anthony Fauci, who tested positive on June 15 for Covid-19 on a rapid antigen test, has now confirmed that he has been suffering from 'Covid rebound' symptoms after being treated with Paxlovid. The nation's top infectious disease expert, who continued to work from home as he recovered, spoke about it while speaking remotely at the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum.
In the mid of June, the 81-year-old tested positive for the virus with mild symptoms including fatigue. But as the symptoms started getting worse, Fauci began a five-day course of Paxlovid, an oral antiviral pill that can be taken at home to help the high-risk patients from getting hospitalized.
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As per DailyMail, following the five-day Paxlovid course, the doctor said that he tested negative for the virus three days in a row. He decided to test again on the fourth day and the result came back positive. Fauci said that his symptoms were much worse after he tested positive for the second time on the fifth day.
The debate over Paxlovid
Paxlovid, made by Pfizer, is a two-drug regimen (nirmatrelivir and ritonavir) taken together twice a day for five days. As per Yale Medicine, it was granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2021 for anyone aged 12 and older who weighs at least 88 pounds. However, Paxlovid’s roots date back to the year 2003, when the original strain of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) broke out.
When it applied for FDA authorization, Pfizer presented data from a clinical trial conducted between mid-July and early December 2021. The data showed that participants (all of whom were unvaccinated) who were given Paxlovid were 89% less likely to develop severe illness and death compared to trial participants who received a placebo. (While the recommendation is to take Paxlovid within five days of symptom onset, participants in the clinical trial took the drug within three days.)
According to a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study, which got published on June 22, Covid-19 rebound symptoms after a course of Paxlovid are caused because not enough of the drug was getting to infected cells to stop all viral replication.
A study by the Mayo Clinic reports that few people with Covid-19 who were given Paxlovid experienced rebound symptoms after their treatment. That research was backed up by a June 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that stated that hospital admissions were rare for people who had tested positive for Covid-19 and been recently treated with Paxlovid.