Drug manufacturer Merck announced on Friday that it will soon seek authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of the first COVID-19 antiviral drug that can be administered as a pill.
The drug — known as molnupiravir — works by stopping the virus from being able to replicate in a person’s body. A patient who has received an early coronavirus diagnosis would take four capsules twice a day for five days as treatment.
When given to higher-risk patients early on in their infection during clinical trials, the drug has cut coronavirus death and hospitalization rates in half within just five days of starting the daily pill regimen.
The results of the clinical trial are immensely promising to those monitoring it — so much so that an independent group of medical experts who were supervising the trial stopped it early because its efficacy rate was so high.
Other treatment options remain much more effective at preventing infection or treating those who are diagnosed with coronavirus. For example, monoclonal antibody treatments are shown to prevent the need for hospitalization or the chance of death by around 70 percent. Vaccinations against COVID-19 have had even higher rates of success in preventing contraction of and hospitalization for the virus.
But monoclonal antibody treatments are expensive, and access to vaccines is limited in many parts of the globe.
“I think it will translate into many thousands of lives being saved worldwide, where there’s less access to monoclonal antibodies, and in this country, too,” said Robert Shafer, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University speaking to The New York Times.
“This could turn out to be one of the most important advances to counter Covid,” tweeted Eric Topol, an American cardiologist, scientist and author.
Though the availability of a pill to treat COVID may result in vaccine skeptics thinking they don’t need to get vaccinated to protect themselves from contracting the virus, experts say that preventive measures remain the best way to manage the pandemic, rather than treatment methods.
According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, 17 percent of Americans still say they will never get vaccinated, while around 11 percent say they’re still unsure.
“We love having more treatments available, but prevention is the first goal,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who spoke to the Associated Press about the Merck medication. “Vaccination continues to be the foundation of how we can get ahead of COVID.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.