BY ANISH KOKA
Yesterday, the White house COVID czar surprisingly doubled down on Paxlovid as the silver bullet for COVID.
I was curious because most impartial observers don’t believe the totality of evidence supports Paxlovid as some type of COVID-slayer. The problem is that Paxlovid showed great benefit in unvaccinated patients in preventing progression to severe disease, but much less benefit in vaccinated/prior infected individuals.
Dr. Jha cites a study in the New England Journal of Medicine to note Paxlovid is a home run for those over 65, and despite negative results for the under 65 group in this study, cites 3 other studies that support its use in the 50-64 age group. He goes onto thread together some other studies to support his views.
It’s a really interesting thread that says a lot more about the politics of COVID than the science of COVID because it rests heavily on flawed retrospective studies of Paxlovid that show benefit, and ignores the much stronger randomized controlled trials that suggest otherwise.
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