The COVID antiviral drugs are here but they're scarce. Here's what to know

Two highly anticipated COVID-19 pills have been authorized for emergency use and allocated for shipment to states, but the supply is tight, and the rollout varies from state to state.

Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's molnupiravir are both oral antiviral pills that can be taken at home to keep patients out of the hospital. They're meant to be taken within the first few days of having COVID-19, and they reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by up to 88% for Paxlovid and 30% for molnupiravir.

Right now, they're just for patients at the highest risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness. For example, people with weakened immune systems, including transplant patients and older adults, are especially vulnerable. So many of the hundreds of thousands of people testing positive for the coronavirus daily would not be candidates for the treatments.

Although the Department of Health and Human Services allocated around 65,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid and 300,000 courses of molnupiravir to states and programs around the country last week, many haven't yet made it to their destinations. ...

State health departments get to decide which clinics, hospitals, local health departments and pharmacies will receive shipments, and then they can be shipped out.

But even those plans can vary widely from state to state.

In Indiana, for example, Paxlovid will go only to designated hospitals and molunpiravir will go only to designated pharmacies. But in Ohio both drugs will go to providers already set up to administer monoclonal antibodies. ...