COVID Antivirals Less Effective Than Expected
New research suggests that COVID-19 antivirals like Paxlovid and Lagevrio are becoming less effective due to widespread population immunity. The study questions the cost-effectiveness of these treatments given their high price and diminishing returns.
Why it matters
Challenges current public health policies regarding the continued use and funding of expensive COVID-19 therapeutics.
If you're aged over 70, or over 50 with underlying health conditions, and have tested positive for COVID, you might have been offered free or subsidised antivirals .
PhD Candidate, Vaccines and Antiviral Effectiveness, UNSW
Professor of Infectious Diseases, Monash University
Associate Professor and NHMRC Career Development Fellow, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
Head of School of Population Health and Professor, Infectious Diseases Dynamics and Interventions, UNSW
Earlier in the pandemic, these medicines were an important way to reduce the chance of people becoming severely ill with COVID, needing to be hospitalised, or dying.
But our new research suggests that with high levels of vaccination and immunity from previous infections, COVID antivirals are no longer working as well.
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