As record daily Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths this month in the US have pushed the pandemic to new crisis levels, senior government health officials have lamented that many patients are not getting the drugs including monoclonal antibodies, antivirals, and corticosteroids available to treat the disease, leaving many doses unused.
There are still questions about how well many of these drugs work. One recent report found that a mix of monoclonal antibodies developed by Eli Lilly could reduce Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths by 70 percent, though some researchers cautioned that the findings were drawn from a small number of events.
And with the new, potentially more contagious variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 now spreading, a few of these therapies could prove even less effective.
New variants of the novel coronavirus from the UK, South Africa and Brazil ay be able to bypass the immune response that COVID-19 survivors have developed and allow for easier reinfection.
Nearly two-thirds of people hospitalized for coronavirus are still suffering fatigue and weakness six MONTHS later - and a quarter of long-covid sufferers can t sleep, study finds
Researchers looked at more than 1,700 hospitalized coronavirus patients who were discharged between January 7 and May 29
More than 75% of patients reported at least one symptom six months later, with the most common being fatigue and muscle weakness among 63%
The next most common ongoing symptoms were fatigue and muscle weakness in 26% and anxiety or depression in 23%
Among 100 patients tested for antibody levels, most had levels reduced by half, which raises questions about the potential for reinfection