![]() SAGAL: Next, it's a deputy editor and a blogger for the Houston Chronicle, Ms. First, say hello to a writer for the Boston Global magazine and author most recently of the book, "Idiot America," Mr. Let me introduce you to our panel this week. SAGAL: Oh really? So you're in actual Maryland, Maryland. WAGNER: Yeah, we're about 80 miles away, up in the Appalachian foothills. SAGAL: Hagerstown, Maryland is not far from Washington, right? MATT WAGNER: Hello, this is Matt Wagner from Hagerstown, Maryland. It's time to welcome our first listener contestant. You can win our prize in the clothes you're wearing, though. You get inside all the screens light up, you put on a diaper and pretend to drive all the way to Florida. As a consolidation prize, though, the Adler Planetarium here in Chicago will get a genuine astronaut simulator. And once again, L.A., New York and Washington and Florida won out over us scrappy Midwesterners. He's coming on later to play Not My Job.īut first, disappointing news for Chicago this week, NASA announced who was going to get the retired space shuttles. We've got David Simon, the guy who gave us the Wire and Treme, among other great TV shows. I'm Carl Kasell, and here's your host, at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal. (SOUNDBITE OF HANDBOOK'S "CAN'T TALK NOW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.From NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT.DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR News quiz. And another Paxlovid development this month is that the government is now allowing pharmacists to prescribe these pills, which opens up the possibilities for the drug to be more accessible across the country. And it's not currently clear how frequently this happens or - but so far, the rebounds are generally mild, and patients could be infectious again. HUANG: Some people have reported that their COVID symptoms do come back after completing a course of Paxlovid. But this therapy does seem to prevent severe complications of COVID, and so most patients are opting for that. Of course, none of us know what will happen in the future. SCOTT DRYDEN-PETERSON: The vast majority of patients do want to take it. Still, he says, taking Paxlovid cuts even that minimal risk in half. Scott Dryden-Peterson at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston said that for COVID patients like Biden, who are around the same age, who are vaccinated with the same underlying conditions, the risks of getting hospitalized may have dropped to as low as 1%. Now many people are starting with a lower risk because they've been vaccinated, or they've recovered from COVID or both. This was a result that was found in people who were unvaccinated, with risk factors for severe COVID. HUANG: Well, when the pills were first authorized in the winter, they were considered almost 90% effective at cutting the risk of getting hospitalized. For the time being, he stopped taking pills that lower his cholesterol and thin his blood to avoid drug interactions that could be dangerous.įADEL: How well does Paxlovid work? What do we know about that? And like a lot of other patients, the president has also had to adjust his medications to be able to take Paxlovid safely. See, the pills need to be started within five days of getting symptoms because they basically work by stopping the virus from replicating in the body. And the president started them yesterday, within a day or two of showing symptoms, which, according to the current guidelines, is ideal. HUANG: Well, so it's a five-day course of pills. So remind us how these antiviral pills work. ![]() He joins more than 2.7 million COVID patients who've gotten the drug here in the U.S.įADEL: OK. But given the president's age - he's 79 - and some of his health conditions, his doctor started him on a course of Paxlovid. And he's taking work calls while isolating in the White House residence - so far, seems to have a pretty mild case of COVID. Thursday morning, he tested positive for the coronavirus, first on an antigen test, then on a PCR test. In terms of the timeline, the president started feeling tired after a long day on Wednesday. It's not clear yet how the president got COVID. Kevin O'Connor, the president's physician, who's promised to give daily updates on that condition. HUANG: Well, the latest is that the president has a runny nose. Hi, Pien.įADEL: So the president says he's feeling fine. MARTIN: The president's doctor prescribed him a course of Paxilovid antiviral pills.įADEL: NPR's Pien Huang joins us now to share the latest on the president's condition and this common COVID treatment. And I really appreciate your inquiries and your concerns. And he released a video saying as much yesterday.
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