I wanted to share my most recent piece in NBC News Think, which discusses how the new Covid-19 pills could help save lives just in time for the alarming Omicron variant. With Merck’s treatment receiving a favorable recommendation by the FDA advisory committee, Pfizer’s Covid pill is expected to be reviewed by the agency imminently as well.

But even so, these new treatments present a potential downside: discouraging people from getting vaccinated. While they can be – and should be – an important tool in the toolkit for controlling the pandemic, the focus must remain on prevention. And that means vaccines.

For more on what these new Covid treatment pills mean, and how they can impact the pandemic, read the full article here.

****

“It is understandable that there is significant interest in the new pills that could cure Covid. But oral treatments sidestep the essential goal of slowing the pandemic and the steady march of new variants, an inevitable consequence of the virus’s festering in communities where vaccination rates are dismally low. This is the case in hot spots throughout the U.S. and other developed countries but far more worrisome in low-income countries throughout Africa and South Asia, where vaccination rates linger well below 10 percent.

The potential availability of Covid pills notwithstanding, the essential message remains prevention first. Get vaccinated and make sure the same protection is afforded to your children. Then we can save the new medications for serious breakthrough cases in vaccinated people or for those who have serious underlying medical conditions.”

****

As seen in:

As always let me know if you have any comments or questions by tweeting me at @IrwinRedlenerMD.