After the authorization of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for your emergency use, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, today announced his decision to take over reserves of paxlovid, Pfizer’s coronavirus pill. He has done so in an interview with To be, in which he has also touched on other issues related to the pandemic, such as the regulation of antigen test prices. But, back to the coronavirus pill. What are the implications of our country having this emergency antiviral drug?
The politician has raised it as one more tool for the “Flu” of the virus. By this, he actually refers to step from pandemic to endemic. This is something that has been talked about a lot lately and that actually makes sense if taken with a grain of salt. Yes, it seems that the pandemic, with the current scenario of variants, is heading towards a decline that could lead to endemicity.
But that does not mean that we are finally before the long-awaited compared to the flu. It is still not, you just have to refer to the figures of hospitalizations and deaths. And it would be even less so if we did not have such a high percentage of vaccination; Well, it’s not that the omicron is light. At least it is not the only thing we must take into account. Our main reason for celebration is that our immune system is ready to fight it. But, anyway, it doesn’t hurt to have more weapons like that pill that, according to Pedro Sánchez, will soon be at the disposal of the Spanish hospitals.
While many European countries acquired stocks of the antiviral paxlovid shortly after the aprobation For emergency use by the EMA, Spain had not yet announced when it would do the same. Until today.
Pedro Sánchez has announced that throughout this month of January the government of Spain will take control of 344,000 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus pill.
This drug is a protease inhibitor. That is, its function is to cut the long protein chain in which are the proteins that must be assembled to form new viral particles. If this cut does not occur, the assembly will not be able to occur correctly, so the virus will not be able to replicate after infection. Basically you don’t have the parts to do it. In clinical trials it has shown very good results, since of the patients who took paxlovid in the first days of symptoms, only the 0.8% he had to be hospitalized for worsening disease. And none died.
This is precisely the reason why it will be people at risk, due to age or comorbidities, who have priority to receive this drug, which is already being administered in other countries such as United Kingdom.
To assure that we are entering the endemic phase is to venture too far. But it is true that everything seems to point to it for various reasons. And one of them is that, for the first time, we have a fairly varied arsenal of weapons against coronavirus.
At first, some antivirals directed at other diseases were used as a last resort. They only applied in hospitals, usually in ICU, to patients who were very serious.
However, both Pfizer’s coronavirus pill and Merck’s antiviral, both with their clinical trials completed around the same time, are another useful resource. And it is that they can be taken directly by the patients in his house, before symptoms become severe. That, coupled with the fact that vaccines are helping to make symptoms in general much less severe, is a clear victory over COVID-19.
That is why what Pedro Sánchez announced today is good news. However, now more than ever, we must bear in mind the swiss cheese pattern. This presents the security measures as slices of a Swiss cheese with holes. If we only catch one, the virus may enter the gaps. If we put another one on top, some of those holes will be covered, but there will still be more holes for it to escape. But if we put more and more slices, each time we will make it more difficult. Pfizer’s antiviral is one more layer of cheese. As are indoor masks, ventilation, reduced capacity or the safety distance. And, of course, vaccines. With this pill against the coronavirus, our Swiss cheese model grows stronger. That will always be a reason to celebrate.