Study says Pfizer COVID drug Paxlovid reduces COVID risk in seniors regardless of vaccine status
Pfizer's clinical trial tested Paxlovid in unvaccinated people who had risk factors for serious disease and found that the two-drug treatment cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 90%.;
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Jerusalem: Pfizer Inc's antiviral treatment Paxlovid reduces COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients 65 years and older, according to a new study in Israel conducted during the rise of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The treatment, however, was not found to prevent severe illness among younger adults, according to research from Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest healthcare provider.
Use of Pfizer's pills, authorized to treat newly infected, at-risk people in order to prevent severe illness, has soared in the United States along with a spike infections. Biden administration officials have pushed for wide use of Paxlovid, which the government purchased and provides free.
Pfizer's clinical trial tested Paxlovid in unvaccinated people who had risk factors for serious disease and found that the two-drug treatment cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 90%. That was during the Delta wave of the virus.
In reducing mortality, Arbel said the treatment showed a very high benefit in patients 65 and older - an 81% risk reduction. There were no observed benefits in younger adults, who are at less risk of dying from COVID.
The researchers noted limitations that may have biased their findings, such as lack of data on the symptoms patients presented, which may have impacted their course of treatment, or patients' degrees of prior immunity.
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