Vaccine skeptics may not be too enthused to use Pfizer Inc's newly announced COVID-19 drug in lieu of a coronavirus vaccine either, an infectious disease expert told the Ynet studio on Sunday.
"The new drugs are welcome and excellent, but patients must be identified early and persuaded to ingest medicine when they feel great, which is not an easy task," head of the Infectious Disease Unit and Laboratories at Israel's largest hospital Prof. Galia Rahav said in an interview.
The U.S. pharmaceutical giant said on Friday that it stopped a trial of its experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 early after the drug was shown to cut by 89% the chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease.
The trial results of Pfizer's pill appear to surpass those seen with Merck & Co Inc's pill, molnupiravir, which was shown last month to halve the likelihood of dying or being hospitalized for COVID-19 patients also at high risk of serious illness.
However, the Sheba Medical Center-based physician reserves that the treatment's announcement may not be the watershed moment in the trajectory of the pandemic that the world has been hoping for and that vaccination remains paramount.
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Head of the Infectious Disease Unit and Laboratories at Sheba Medical Center Prof. Galia Rahav
(Photo: Yariv Katz)
"You must first find [vaccine-hesitant virus carriers], give it to them and then keep them under inspection to prevent mutations from developing. We may have to write them a cocktail of drugs. Don't be mistaken, the main thing still, to really prevent hospitalizations etc., it is definitely vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. And the drugs are the second step," she said.
"It must also be noted that as with antibiotics, when the bacteria develop resistance to all kinds of mutations, we must be very alert and check that the drugs won't cause mutations of the virus to crop up and it may be wise to even combine the drugs later."