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Comment by AHappyCamper | Hacker News Reader

If only there was a readily available, highly effected treatment for COVID that you could buy over the counter and had no side effects..... oh wait... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34194240/

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... outpatient, sample size 42, open label, significantly older control group. This is a shitty trial, and definitely one that shouldn't be relied on to make such broad statements.

Didn't Pfizer develop a pill delivered treatment for early infections, currently in trials?

What does "highly effected" mean anyway? The one you linked might be enough to warrant future study, but given the numbers used it's not really statistically significant. I mean, especially when vaccinated, most people will be fine after two weeks at the latest.

I think you mean Paxlovid? That's actually approved but apparently it's hard to make and Pfizer is still working on expanding production. Some pharmacies do have it however. As to highly effective, I believe it means that if you take Paxlovid you are very unlikely to need to be hospitalized and the length and severity of the infection will be significantly reduced. See this article for more info about someone's experience getting the drug.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/business/covid-pill-treat...

1. It's just a pilot study, and outpatient at that.

2. N = 42 is .. small.. but see: #1

3. Holy crap that's fascinating results!! Wow! Can't wait to see what happens in a Real study (RCT) with higher N.

4. I'm smirking at the fact that the authors consist of the employees of the company that makes the compound in question, and those with the most to gain. But this in no way diminishes point #3.

5. Where did you hear of this? I'm disappointed in myself that I hadn't seen this, and it's from the middle of last year.

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