Is Paxlovid, the Covid pill, reach­ing those who most need it? The gov­ern­ment won’t say

As the na­tion large­ly aban­dons mask man­dates, phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, and oth­er covid-19 pre­ven­tion strate­gies, elect­ed of­fi­cials and health de­part­ments alike are now cham­pi­oning an­tivi­ral pills. But the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment isn’t say­ing how many peo­ple have re­ceived these po­ten­tial­ly life­sav­ing drugs or whether they’re be­ing dis­trib­uted eq­ui­tably.

Pfiz­er’s Paxlovid pill, along with Mer­ck’s mol­nupi­ravir, are aimed at pre­vent­ing vul­ner­a­ble pa­tients with mild or mod­er­ate covid from be­com­ing sick­er or dy­ing. More than 300 Amer­i­cans still die from covid every day.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER