With so many Americans being hit by COVID-19, including those who have had their full complement of shots, becoming infected is starting to seem almost unavoidable. More worrisome is the rise in infectiousness of the coronavirus, and the heightened risk of extended disease effects (“long COVID”), especially with repeat bouts.
But rather than simply throwing up their hands and regarding the whole thing as a bad flu to be endured, Hawaii residents must consider the advantages that didn’t exist a year ago. In particular. there are therapeutics available to help minimize the damage the virus can do, and to shorten the period when the illness is at its worst.
That’s the word from President Joe Biden, newly recovered from COVID-19, helped by the administration of Paxlovid, among the prescription treatments that, the president assures, are widely available.
This appears to be so. The state Health Department website links to a therapeutics locator (hawaiicovid19.com/covid-19-treatment/) that shows specific local providers and the dosages on hand for various medications. There are two basic types: the antivirals, including Paxlovid, Veklury and Lagevrio; and the monoclonal antibody therapy Bebtelovimab.
No treatment is perfect. In a high-profile example of that, Biden developed the Paxlovid “rebound,” a known effect of that drug in rare cases: the recurrence of symptoms — and infectiousness — days after the initial recovery.
But they are invaluable interventions, especially for patients considered at high risk of a bad outcome. These include not only people of advanced age, such as the 79-year-old president, but those with obesity, diabetes, asthma or other diseases or those whose immune systems are compromised. A fact sheet with more on these conditions can be found on the Hawaii site, https://808ne.ws/therapy.
Further, the BA.5 subvariant has dominated the cases in Hawaii, East-West Center epidemiology expert Tim Brown said on Monday’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast. Its accelerated transmission has kept levels at an elevated plateau, Brown said, rather than continuing on a downslope since the surge started earlier this year.
And this BA.5 version gets around more of the initial barrier of vaccines or previous infections than previous forms of the virus, health authorities agree. So all people, vaccinated or not, need to be on alert.
According to the National Institutes of Health, a number of factors determine which treatment option is best for any given patient.
And so the best advice for people who test positive for COVID-19 is to consult a doctor who knows their physical condition. Whether they are young or old, patients can face myriad complicating issues affecting the prescription of a therapeutic drug.
And they need to do so quickly. Any treatment that is ordered should begin within the first five days of symptoms.
Brown noted the persistence of the hospitalizations and the death count in Hawaii. In the week ending Wednesday, 23 Hawaii people died of COVID-19 — a sober reminder that the disease must still be taken seriously. Brown suggested that outreach to the most vulnerable populations could help by getting the therapeutics to more COVID-19 sufferers.
But there are other strategies that people could, and should, adopt on their own. Masking has declined, unfortunately, as well as the uptake of vaccines and boosters. With immunity from shots or past illnesses fading fast, those who are eligible for boosters should get them. Just as important: People should not put away their high-quality masks, especially in crowded settings.
As much as people are tempted to speed away from COVID-19, it is more than keeping pace with them. Thankfully, there are now more tools to keep it in check. The only rational response is to use them.
