Health Canada has authorized two antiviral drugs to treat adults with mild to moderate COVID-19.
Just a few months ago and still today. People are being called crackpots, conspiracy theorists, crazy or even de-platformed from social media just for questioning the blanket one size fits all get vaccinated solution narrative.
Health Canada approved two antiviral drugs, nirmatrelvir and ritonavir (brand name PAXLOVIDTM). The active ingredient nirmatrelvir in PAXLOVIDTM works by stopping the virus from replicating. The drugs will be used to treat adults with mild to moderate COVID-19.
The oral treatment with the drug must start within 5 days of starting symptoms.
Paxlovid is made to be for use at home to help treat COVID-19. Before the approval of paxlovid, early treatment with authorized medications for COVID-19 was only available to hospital patients. The at home early treatment will help reduce the strain on the healthcare system.
Tam said rapid tests could also be used to determine who might receive Paxlovid.
“The challenge with this medication is to get the test done early…. You can try and get the PCR test but if it’s simply not available or not available fast enough, the rapid antigen test may be used,” she said. “That’s just a very practical approach.”
Twice per day for five days, both drugs need to be taken by mouth. The studies show the drugs will stop the virus from multiplying and prevent serve illness, if treated soon enough. Being tested and finding a test will be hard to come by because there is a shortage of tests in circulation in B.C. or they are being hoarded away again. It is hard to tell with these officials.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser with Health Canada, said clinical trials showed treatment with Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 by 89 per cent when the medications were started within three days of the beginning of symptoms, and by 85 per cent when started within five days.
In about a week, B.C. is expecting to receive 4000 treatment courses of paxlovid.
So far, Canada has received 30,400 treatment courses of Paxlovid, with 120,000 more expected to be delivered between January and March.
Health Canada received the submission for PAXLOVIDTM from Pfizer on December 1, 2021, and conducted an expedited review. Pfizer submitted the data to Health Canada on a rolling basis throughout the review process, as new information became available to facilitate a decision as quickly as possible. These data included results from clinical trials for PAXLOVIDTM where patients had not been vaccinated and had not previously been infected with COVID-19
The benefits greatly outweighed risks. The public is to also note it can cause interactions with other medications for some patients, so consult your doctor first if you are on any medications.
