nov 17 2015 in washington dc the likelihood of getting rebound after taking paxlovid was initially thought to be very small less than 2 percent in most cases according to the food and drug administration and pfizer the company that makes the drug after paxlovid hit the market in december 2021 the bitter metallictasting antiviral pills were so successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization with covid that many doctors were willing to prescribe the drug to younger adults without health concerns despite federal guidelines suggesting it should only go to highrisk patients still the drug isnt right for everyone including people taking certain medications such as some cholesterollowering drugs and blood thinners win mcnameegetty images file after walensky wound up with her own case of paxlovid the cdc director noted there are still some 400 deaths a day due to covid and made clear there were no plans to pull back on the governments recommendation of the drug here are three things to know paxlovid helps older people survive covid but younger healthy people see little benefit overall the drug works as promised doctors say by dramatically reducing the chances that an older or highrisk individual might wind up hospitalized or dead dr judith odonnell an infectious disease specialist at penn presbyterian medical center said she agrees there are serious benefits for people 50plus as well as younger patients with serious underlying health conditions like asthma obesity or kidney disease the good news is that rebound cases are mild and mostly inconvenient not life threatening he announced on monday that he tested positive for covid over the weekend and a spokesperson confirmed he is being treated with paxlovid now after nearly 34 million courses of paxlovid have been shipped around the world since april doctors say a clearer picture of the drug is emerging including its limitations with younger population and the possibility of rebound with or without the drug editors note this version corrects the number of courses shipped worldwide to nearly 34 million now the internal medicine physician at jefferson health in philadelphia said hes reserving it mostly for people who are 60plus with serious health problems or who arent uptodate on their vaccines so even though theres a risk of rebound that would not prevent me from using it in the correct patient she later added whats more is that it might help prevent long covid the experience is frustrating because the recommendation is that the person return to isolation for another five days because people testing positive during rebound are thought to remain contagious additionally the vast majority of patients in the trial demonstrated sustained reductions in nasal viral rna through day 14 following completion of treatment bob califf her fda counterpart agreed pfizers paxlovid joe raedlegetty images file the drug stops the virus from replicating in the body and works best when taken within five days of getting symptoms but diaz said hes also telling patients that about a third of people who