Is There a Proof That Anti-Viral Drugs Reduce Hospitalizations?

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The data that's come out so far is all about the effectiveness of these drugs at reducing hospitalizations. But people want to know whether or not they also reduce death. The numbers enrolled in trial were too small for us to really say, wow, it really protects against death. Yet, there is reason to hope, and it will be something that we'll be looking for yet, from the real world data.

Two new anti-viral pills have been shown to be safe and effective against COVID in clinical trials, according to recent press releases. The drugs, molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer both appear to significantly reduce hospitalisation in people with early COVID. Some researchers are quietly hopeful that these new weapons in the anti-COVID arsenal could have a big impact, in particular in parts of the world where vaccines are still not widely available, but there are a number of caveats. In this episode of Coronapod, we open the pill boxes and pick through the contents - asking how the drugs work, what side effects we might see and how, if at all, they might change the course of the pandemic.

News: COVID antiviral pills: what scientists still want to know

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