Pfizer's Covid Therapeutic Supposedly Reduces Risk of Serious Symptoms In "High Risk" Patients by 89%;
FDA Has Concerns About Merck's Therapeutic, Already Under Review

The Cult of the Science Priests Giveth, and the Cult of the Science Priests taketh away.

Here's CBS' morning show talking with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about his new alleged wonder drug: "Mortality has been prevented at very high levels... It's a game changer."

Although most people will self-prevent mortality at very high levels, because something like 99.6% of people will survive covid, he's touting the pill's effectiveness in a pool of "high risk," unvaccinated people.

Pfizer has submitted it for FDA authorization, of course.

The pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday that it has submitted promising new data to the FDA, including lab experiments showing its oral antiviral medicine, Paxlovid, will likely work against the omicron variant. And in updated clinical trial data, Pfizer found the treatment reduces the risk of being hospitalized or dying by 89% when taken within three days of being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 88% when taken within five days of being diagnosed among high-risk, unvaccinated patients.

"It is a game changer," Bourla told ABC News. "But at the same time, I want to emphasize that no one should use the existence of the pill as an excuse to avoid vaccination."

Bourla said the medicine could save thousands of lives.

"We did some calculations how many deaths or hospitalizations can be avoided based on the current U.S. mortality rates and the current U.S. hospitalization rates," he said. "On the back-of-the-envelope calculation, we estimate that 100,000 people if they take the pill, we will avoid 6,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths approximately."

Eh.

Here's an interesting video. Dr. John Campbell explains the pharmocodynamics of the new Pfizer drug -- the mechanism by which the drug stops covid from replicating.

If I have this right, it stops covid by gumming up one of its key enzymes, an enzyme which chops up covid's longest proteins which allows them to pass into the target cell. The proteins are too large to pass into the target cell unless cut into pieces.

Spoiler Alert: that's what ivermectin -- The Deadly Horse Dewormer -- does, too.

Now I know what you Conspiracy Theorists and Disinformation Spreaders are thinking: Pfizer has created a patentable drug which replicates the same pharmocodynamics of ivermectin, which is out of patent and therefore cannot be monetized.

And all I can say is:

What a terrible thing to say.

Ivermectin is a Deadly Horse Dewormer and only a Russian Asset with kompromat against him would say otherwise.

Do better, Macedonian Content Farmers.

Do better.

Update: Russian Trolls in the comments are calling this new drug "Pfizermectin." I'm reporting them to Twitter for banning.

And don't call it "I Can't Believe It's Not Ivermectin!" either.

I'm trademarking that. I think Pfizer might give me some money for that one.

Meanwhile, Merck has its own covid therapeutic, already undergoing FDA review, and would be available to market relatively soon -- if it's approved. There are questions about whether it poses risks to pregnant women, which you probably know as "People Who Get Pregnant."

In a November meeting, government health advisers weighed information that the drug, known as molnupiravir, was less effective than first reported and could cause birth defects – in addition to whether or not it could potentially even cause mutations in human DNA.

Children and pregnant women were not included in trials and Merck did not study the drug in fully vaccinated people. Merck said its own studies found no evidence that the drug causes DNA mutations.

Animal studies showed the drug had caused toxicity and FDA staffers concluded the data "suggest that molnupiravir may cause fetal harm when administered to pregnant individuals."

Merck said it would not recommend the drug be used in women who are pregnant or lactating, but was opposed to a blanket restriction on prescribing to those patients.

The antimicrobial drugs advisory committee voted to recommend its use, contending that potential benefits of Merck's COVID-19 pill outweighed its risks.

Molnupiravir works best when given within five days of initial symptoms of COVID-19 and Merck tested the drug in adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk due to health problems like obesity, diabetes or heart disease.

Semi-related: Biden wants to know what's the big deal with freedom and bodily autonomy, anyway?

President Joe Biden shrugged off personal freedom as a reason to refuse the COVID jab to scold people who are hesitant to get the shot.

"Everybody talks about freedom and not to have a shot, or have a test. Well, guess what, how about patriotism? How about making sure that you're vaccinated so you do not spread the disease to anybody else? What about that? What's the big deal?" Biden asked.

The same guy who absolutely refuses to take a cognitive ability test wants to know "what's the big deal" about taking a vaccine whose long-term effects are still not known.

As I always mention: I got the vax pretty much as soon as they would let me, and I got the booster as soon as I could, too. Because I got very sick last year, I'm higher risk than I'd like to be. I think covid is more dangerous than a lot of covid-skeptics credit it as (though, perhaps, also not as lethal as covid-panic-propagandists claim, which is what spurs the skepticism).

So I think it's worth whatever risks it poses, at least for adults, and for adults who aren't planning to be pregnant.

But this idea that anyone who comes to a different conclusion is "unpatriotic," and that Freedom is for the Selfish... this isn't America.

I don't know what this is. This is a third-world shithole that has some money hidden in the mattress, but is burning through that money at a rate that won't get us to the next decade.

FDA Has Concerns About Merck's Therapeutic, Already Under Review&bodytext=The Cult of the Science Priests Giveth, and the Cult of the Science Priests taketh away. Here's CBS' morning show talking with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla about his new alleged wonder drug: "Mortality has been prevented at very high levels......&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 03:47 PM

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