As Flurona tops the headlines, several people are curious to know more about the possibility of having both COVID-19 and influenza at the same time. The World Health Organization clarified that it is possible.
couple fronts, one, folks don t get really sick but, also, helps hospitals from being overwhelmed. how big a deal are these authorizations? it is a big deal. whenever we can add solid tools to the tool chest it s a big deal. but you have to remember these would pills while they are oral antivirals, you take them early in your course of infection so within three to five days, pfizer s pill has a considerable edge over the merck pill because it s a higher efficacy rate around 90% at preventing hospitalization or death, the merck pill around 30%. but there are drug-to-drug interactions with both of these pills and there are some concerns with the merck pill around those who are younger. it could impair bone cartilage and growth and as well as those who are pregnant or reproductive age. so a physician does have more tools but we have to decide what is the best fit for the person sitting or standing in front of them. okay. vaccination, boosters, you said
spreading rapidly. but the death rates are much, much lower than they were. this this is not march of 2020. this is a very different time. that we re in now. the new comments from the president they come on a day like every other day this week that have seen major developments in the fight against the deadly virus. pfizer has now received fda approval for the first-ever antiviral pill paxlovid, which is expected to substantially reduce the rate of hospitalization and death among high-risk individuals. according to pfizer, these pills which are taken over a period of days, have an efficacy rate of about 88% if treatment begins within five days of symptoms. it is expected to be easier to get and use than monoclonal antibodies, which are typically administered in a hospital or clinic. the administration hopes to have 250,000 treatment courses by next month and 10 million by summer. also tonight, new information from health officials in other countries about the spread of the omicr
scholar at the earth institute at columbia university, also an nbc public health analyst. thank you for being with me. cal, what are you hearing from parents as they get their children in line for the shot? reporter: yeah, parents are incredibly grateful. good morning to you, sir. this is an historic day in this pandemic. think about where we were a year and a half ago and what we would have given for vaccines for children ages 5 to 11. again, this vaccine has an efficacy rate in children of 91%. they ll be given about a third of the normal dosage, twice over the course of three weeks. but again, grateful parents who wanted their kids to get vaccines are already seeing jabs go into arms. i had a chance to talk to 8-year-old carter and his father, brian, take a listen. i think the last thing i would say is, you know, we ve been through, since they closed schools in 2020, we ve been through about 600 days 602 days. not that we ve been counting. and every parent can tell a story
morning about why it s so important. we have kids in the hospital. they re on ventilators. thankfully most of them recover, but there s also this long haul syndrome that happens in adults, but it also happens in kids. why put your kid through that or take the risk of that where they might have a long-term problem with their heart or their brain? reporter: the vaccine has an efficacy rate of 91% in children ages 5 to 11 and the main side effect is a small price to pay, stephanie. sore arms. that s really what we ve seen in the trial data. doctor, you just heard cal say it. a third of parents want to wait to get their kids vaccinated and another third have said they definitely do not want to do it. as a medical professional, do you believe there has been a communication failure that s caused this hesitancy? well, you know, i think that initially it looked like kids weren t getting as seriously sick. we know that s definitely not true now, you just heard from