Here's what experts know about how well the antiviral works if you have little to no COVID symptoms.
risk of COVID hospitalization and death by 89%
“You can imagine a world where there’s many people who may be in a pre-symptomatic phase of the illness, where they consider themselves asymptomatic but they just haven’t started getting symptoms yet, but are still within that five-day window and we have to make a decision about whether or not to treat them,” said
Paxlovid may still lessen those symptoms, Lew said, which in turn would mean decreasing pressure on the health care system. We also don’t yet know if Paxlovid could help protect people from long COVID, regardless of whether they had symptoms. And Paxlovid came under the spotlight this week because some people are experiencing a resurgence of symptoms ― and positive test results after being negative ― once finishing the five-day course of the pills. Doctors are looking into why this may occur, and it’s not clear whether the severity of symptoms may play a role.Doctors say Paxlovid can help high-risk individuals fight COVID hospitalization or severe disease.