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Comment by sterlind | Hacker News Reader

How do you know that it was Paxlovid that made you better, rather than coincidentally convalescing? There's a tendency for fevers to break as the body gets the upper hand on an infection, so if you started taking Paxlovid during a high fever your body might have been nearly done mopping up.

I'm not saying Paxlovid didn't help you, just that it's tricky to distinguish from placebo without a study.

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It worked extremely fast for me, I took it within 16 hours of symptoms that were increasing rapidly. Within 6-8 hours I started feeling much better, instead just dealing with the Paxlovid side effects. I don’t think my body fought off Covid that fast. Anecdotal of course, but I’d take it again in a heartbeat. I did get a rebound infection the next week but I couldn’t feel it, just tested positive for a couple days.

> I took it within 16 hours of symptoms that were increasing rapidly. Within 6-8 hours I started feeling much better

So about 24 hours? I took nothing when I got COVID, and the major fever and body/head aches only lasted about that long. One day I started feeling absolutely awful, and I woke up the next day feeling substantially better but unable to smell anything but smoke for the next week.

It is possible that the paxlovid helped you, but given the few details you've shared so far it's also possible that it didn't do much that wasn't already going to happen.

It was dramatic and started just a few hours after the first dose. I was worsening all morning and by mid afternoon a reversal, coinciding with the Paxlovid side effects. It wasn’t an overnight thing where rest was a factor, I was awake and bedridden. So I’m pretty convinced, enough to drop $1,500 retail if need be in the future for it.

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