The rise of the omicron subtype of the coronavirus has become a major problem for the citizens in the United States as the cases are increasing at an alarming rate giving sleepless nights to the White House Administration.
FDA Authorized Second Antiviral Pill After Pfizer’s Paxlovid.
On the verge of becoming the dominant variant of the covid 19 in the United States, the Biden’s Administration has been taking various serious steps to curb the rising cases.
From vaccine mandate to travel restriction, nothing has been working in favor of the federal government. Earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration of the US gave authorization to Pfizer’s antiviral pill “Paxlovid” for treatment against the Omicron variant in the US.
As per the FDA, the latest developments, and the analysis conducted from the reports, Paxlovid has shown very promising results and reduced the hospitalization and death rates amongst the severe condition patients by 89 percent. All these results were taken into consideration along with the side effects which were minimal as compared to the other antiviral pills.
According to the South African Scientists and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the long-term effectiveness and efficiency of the initial doses of vaccine have seen a huge dip which has invited more cases of the omicron variant amongst the fully vaccinated.
Keeping all these factors in mind the US FDA has now approved a second antiviral pill developed by Merck. It has been expected that FDA was in favor of Merck’s antiviral pills which actually showed only a 50 percent reduction in the hospital admissions and death rates in the US which was less than Pfizer’s Paxlovid.
Last week the US President Joe Biden announced that he is confident that FDA will authorize Pfizer antiviral pills and stated that his administration has already placed an order of the Paxlovid to treat almost 10 million population of the United States. The level of confidence that the President has shown on Paxlovid is supreme stated some medical experts.
It has been expected by the medical authorities that Pfizer will be the first choice for the severe treatment because of effective results and Merck will become the second choice.
Merck’s antiviral pill might have some implications on pregnant women so it won’t be preferred by the expected mothers.
Some medical experts have also raised tough questions against the effectiveness of booster shots also as in some cases the infected individuals have already received the booster shots at least 14 days back.
Now, these have been some scary results and the latest analytics stated that the omicron strain might infect approximately 140 million American citizens. In the United States, around 30 percent of the eligible adult population have already received booster shots.
The government and major medical agencies have been asking people to get vaccinated as the upcoming wave of the Omicron variant in the US. The vaccination and booster shots are the only best tools to stay protected for the long term.
