In truth, the virus has already been largely defanged for most Americans, and it would be surprising if Omicron changed that. “These will be game-changing for our ability to control Covid worldwide in 2022,” Gandhi said. The agency has not yet said when its experts might vote on Pfizer. panel of experts this week voted narrowly - 13 to 10 - to recommend the approval of the Merck treatment.
Merck’s version, which should be available sooner, reduced risk by 30 percent.Īn F.D.A. Pfizer’s version, which is likely to become widely available early next year, appears to be the more effective: It reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 85 percent in a research trial. The pills prevent the virus from replicating inside the body and are broadly similar to treatments that revolutionized H.I.V. (If you haven’t read my colleague Campbell Robertson’s story about the continuing crisis in schools - including mental health problems among children and exhaustion among teachers, nurses and janitors - it’s sobering.)īoth Pfizer’s and Merck’s treatments are pill regimens that people take for five days after a positive Covid test. Not only can they reduce serious Covid illness, but they can also reduce Covid fears and help society move back to normalcy, lessening the pandemic’s huge social and economic side effects. Two treatments are on the way - one from Pfizer and one from Merck - and they will have both medical and psychological benefits. In the simplest terms, they can help turn Covid into a more ordinary respiratory disease, similar to the common cold or flu, rather than one that’s killing about 1,000 Americans a day and dominating daily life for millions. Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, told me, the treatments are “a huge deal.”
And they are likely to be effective against the Omicron variant, many scientists believe, even if Omicron makes the Covid vaccines weaker at preventing infections. They have the potential to substantially reduce hospitalization and death. A new generation of Covid-19 treatments will soon be available, and they matter more than many people realize.
0 kommentar(er)
