Paxlovid did not reduce the risk of developing long COVID in vaccinated, nonhospitalized adults, according to new data published in the Journal of Medical Virology.
Within an online observational cohort, treatment with Paxlovid among vaccinated, nonhospitalized individuals during their first known COVID-19 infection was not associated with a lower prevalence of patient-reported long COVID symptoms more than 90 days after infection.
The data found that about 21% of survey participants who had symptomatic improvement with Paxlovid went on to report rebound symptoms. Also, nearly 26% of patients who completed treatment and tested negative for COVID-19 reported a subsequent positive antigen test, indicating rebound.
“Treatment was not associated with fewer long COVID symptoms or severe symptoms, although these endpoints were limited by rarity of these outcomes. Rebound symptoms or test positivity after nirmatrelvir [Paxlovid] treatment were not associated with Long COVID symptoms,” study authors wrote.
Other recent research studies have suggested that Paxlovid may offer some protection against long COVID.
The data was based on an observational cohort study within the Covid Citizen Science (CCS) study, an online cohort study with over 100,000 participants. Data from nearly 4,700 participants were included in this study. They took the survey in November and December 2022, and most participants were older and had comorbidities.
The primary outcome was one or more self-reported prevalent long COVID symptoms, based on the WHO’s definition of long COVID. Symptoms queried included fatigue, shortness of breath, confusion, headache, altered taste and smell, joint pain, muscle aches, cough, chest pain, scratchy throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, red or painful eyes, sore throat, and other.
The primary limitation, authors noted, was the study’s observational design. Also, the survey did not include objective measures of post–COVID-19 outcomes or all long COVID-19 symptoms.