One in Five Pfizer Drug Users Experience COVID-19 Rebound: Study

About 20 percent of Paxlovid recipients suffer from COVID-19 rebound, according to a new study. Of those taking Pfizer’s drug, also known as nirmatrelvir, 20.8 percent suffered virologic rebound, researchers said. That was compared with just 1.8 people who took no COVID-19 treatment. The rebound was defined as a positive test after a prior negative result or sustained elevated viral load. The virologic rebound was associated with a substantially longer period of virus shedding. Among those who received Paxlovid, the shedding period was a median of 14 days, well above the three-day median among the untreated group. “We conducted this study to address lingering questions about Paxlovid and virologic rebound in COVID-19 treatment,” Dr. Mark Siedner, M.D. an infectious disease clinician and researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement....