Antiviral COVID-19 drugs arrive in Maryland, local hospitals await allocations
MARYLAND – Maryland recently received its first shipment of the new anti-viral pills for treating COVID-19 patients. Paxlovid and Molnupiravir are provided to patients infected with COVID-19 over a five day period, according to the Maryland Department of Health. The drugs stop RNA in the virus from replicating.
Medical trials show that Paxlovid is about 88% effective at preventing hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Molnupiravir’s medical trials resulted in 30% of 1,400 people reducing the likelihood of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths, according to the FDA.
Doctors at TidalHealth say they’re still waiting to find out when they will be able to get some of the limited supply of pills. “I’ve asked that the last two mornings to our pharmacy, and we still don’t have visibility on that. But, even to that degree, we’re still only talking about availability for a couple hundred doses,” said Dr. Jim Trumble.
Once the drugs do come in, Dr. Trumble says he believes they could be a pandemic game-changer. “These medications are really variant agnostic, meaning that it really doesn’t matter what variant you have. Even going forward, pending potential mutations to that specific protein that they affect, these really should work on anything. That’s the beauty of them,” he said.
Dr. Trumble also stresses that while the effectiveness of treating the coronavirus with these pills is promising, people should still get their COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots. “We don’t want to say ‘This is the solution. I don’t even need to worry about getting vaccinated.’ That’s not the case,” he said.
Even if you are vaccinated, but still at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, Dr. Trumble says the drugs won’t be the final answer. “If you’re vaccinated and you’ve got one of many chronic conditions or are immune suppressed, you’re going to be high risk,” he said. “Even this medication may not be able to come to the rescue at the last minute.”
