YORK, Pa. — On Tuesday, Pfizer asked the FDA to authorize its experimental COVID-19 pill Paxlovid.
Pfizer says the five-day antiviral pill regimen would keep newly infected people who are at high risk of becoming severely ill out of the hospital.
Some people in Central Pennsylvania who are not yet vaccinated say they’re in full support of this antiviral pill if it’s going to help them lower their risk of having severe COVID-19 symptoms.
“There’s nothing wrong with having a secondary option for treatment, for people that either a) can’t get medically get the vaccine, b) ethically choose not to, or c) for religious purposes, for personal reasons," said Lauren Houser.
“If a pill is going to help, you know if it’s going to help those that are going to maybe not getting the vaccine right now, you know that’s good," said Kevin Whittaker.
According to the results from Pfizer’s trial, they were able to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 by 89% among people that were given the drug within the first three days of symptoms.
Houser says that doing this antiviral pill regimen wouldn’t be her first option if she was diagnosed with COVID-19, but she likes that she has the option if she needs it.
“It would sure be nice to know that if I was one of those unfortunate few whose immune system couldn’t handle it and I was in need of medical intervention, it sure would be nice to know that there was a medicine that was studied, approved for emergency use authorization and available to me immediately by picking it up at a pharmacy," said Houser.
However, Whitaker feels like he would have to do more research on this new treatment pill before he would feel comfortable taking it.
“I would definitely look into it for sure, if it’s something that I would feel comfortable with, you know, not affecting me, you know internally, and whatnot, absolutely, I think that would be great," said Whitaker.
If approved, Paxlovid will be administered in two 150 mg tablets along with one 100 mg tablet of Ritonavir twice daily.