Merck's Covid-19 Pill May Soon Be Here. How Well Will It Work?

 

Davis Patterson

Mr. Ippolito

Current events 9

Jan 11, 2022

Saey, Tina Hesman. “Merck's Covid-19 Pill May Soon Be Here. How Well Will It Work?” Science News, 2 Dec. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-pill-merck-molnupiravir-antiviral-fda. 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-pill-merck-molnupiravir-antiviral-fda

According to Tina Hesman Saey article Merck's Covid-19 Pill May Soon Be Here. How Well Will It Work?, in the December 2, 2021 edition of Science News. Tina says that hopes for a new pill that could combat Covid-19 have dimmed a lot. There's been new tests stating that the antiviral pill is not as stellar as it used to be. The drug also has shown to have drawbacks that could outweigh its potential to help people stay out of hospitals. At first the pill seemed to be successful putting only 7.3% of people in the hospital, as other pills put 14% and 2.1% dead. But as time went on and the FDA did an analysis of these antiviral pills; they learned that the pill Molnupirvar wasnt as successful as the pill placebo. The FDA drugs advisory came to a split  13-10 decision about if this drug should be granted emergency use authorization. The panel also answered questions about how this drug could lead to more dangerous versions of the Coronavirus. Virologist John Coffin of Tufts University in Boston said during the FDA meeting. “I’m not sure [molunupiravir] is the one we’ve been waiting for, but it’s all we’ve got at the moment.” He voted in favor of the drug but was among those urging the FDA to reconsider if better options become available. The article then goes on to talk about the drawback of the drug. The article says things like this drug could cause mutations in human DNA, and that when it does a new mutation of Covid might spring up. The article also says that this pill isn't safe for kids and pregnant women yet. 

The news that this article tells us, that there might be pills in the future that we can take to help stop Covid and the spread of it really impacts America and the whole world. Not only will hospitals have a lot less Coronavirus patients, the amount of people that will have Covid will go down and people won't be as afraid of it. Not only that if this pill works it will be just like getting a cold. You stay home for a few days and your back like nothing ever happened.  

The article I just read had some really good information, it had a lot of information explaining why this pill is great for fighting Covid; it also gave information on why this pill also might not be the best for fighting Covid. It gave view points on both sides of the argument. Although I thought the author did a really good job writing his article on something I thought that he could do to make it better is explain how this pill got passed in Europe but not in America.