The article COVID drug Paxlovid was hailed as a game-changer. What happened? dispells the myths about Paxlovid. In particular, there is no such thing as Paxlovid rebound because rebound occurs even in people who don’t take Paxlovid.

Please read the article and refer your medical caregivers to it if necessary.

To add to the confusion, worries have swirled about post-Paxlovid ‘rebound’, fuelled by high-profile cases in figures such as US President Joe Biden and and former US infectious-disease chief Anthony Fauci. Such publicity has had a chilling effect on the number of people seeking Paxlovid, says Smith.

But researchers have found that rebound often occurs even in people who don’t take Paxlovid. Precise estimates for rebound incidence vary, depending on the population studied and the definition of ‘rebound’. But regardless of whether people take Paxlovid, Smith says, it’s common for them to experience either viral rebound — in which people test positive again — or symptom rebound, but not both at the same time4. Smith says that symptom rebound tends to be very mild, and is still far preferable to hospitalization or death.