Shortages and drawbacks are undercutting the options for treating COVID-19 patients

Doctors have an arsenal of Covid-19 treatments, but setbacks and shortages are undercutting options Doctors have an arsenal of Covid-19 treatments, but setbacks and shortages are undercutting the options. Andrew Joseph STAT

On paper, the list of outpatient treatments for Covid-19 seems reassuring.

Two oral antivirals have arrived, companies have churned out monoclonal antibody treatments, and all of them, to varying degrees, can help prevent patients from getting so sick they need to be hospitalized.

But shortages and setbacks have undercut those options — at a time when more people than ever are getting sick. Supply of some of the treatments, particularly the prized new oral treatment Paxlovid, is extremely constrained. The ascendance of the Omicron variant has nullified the power of some of the monoclonal antibodies. ...