PILL THAT WE KNOW WORKS

LAST week, the US National Institutes of Health announced a billion-dollar trial to see if an anti-viral drug called Paxlovid could help millions of long-Covid suffers around the world. The drug will be tested on 1,700 ‘longhaulers’ after smaller studies — combined with anecdotal reports from many long Covid sufferers — suggested it can banish many of the crippling symptoms.

The drug has already proved its worth fighting acute infection when patients first fall ill with Covid.

A study in the British Medical Journal in November last year showed that for patients given the tablets within three days of Covid symptoms appearing, their risk of needing to be admitted to hospital with Covid or dying from it was slashed by almost 90 per cent.

The theory is that it may also help some long Covid sufferers because, in some cases, the virus hangs around in the body long after the initial infection — continuing to cause a wide range of symptoms.

Some medics have been calling for a largescale long Covid trial for more than a year.

The new US study should help identify who is likely to benefit most from the drug. It’s early days, but we’re aware of many long-haulers who have taken Paxlovid and found

themselves almost back to normal.