Treating the long-feared SARS-CoV-2 virus with just a pill indeed sounds hard to believe and grasp. But a trial of the pharmaceutical company known as Merck gives us plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The term “molnupiravir” may sound for most people like a brand for creating alien spaceships, but it’s actually the name of the drug that researchers are now adding a lot of faith in.
Since the USA is devastated by the ongoing pandemic, the country has recently bought 1.7 million doses of Merck’s drug for fighting the coronavirus. Although the investment is indeed huge, Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former FDA Commissioner) says that it’s not enough, according to The Hill.
Even more doses needed?
Gottlieb declared, as quoted by The Hill:
So, I think there could have been a little more forethought to trying to get more manufacturing in place and procuring more doses.
"It's not enough," @ScottGottliebMD says of the 1.7 million doses of Merck's new COVID-19 pill purchased by the US gov't.
He says by comparison, the national stockpile has anywhere between 50 and 80 million courses of therapy for a feared pandemic flu. pic.twitter.com/FjVZTkzNMO
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 3, 2021
Even now, the US is struggling with the Delta wave of the pandemic, as it makes the virus significantly more infectious than before.
The Washington Post tells us that during the clinical trial, Merck’s molnupiravir drug managed to reduce by almost half the risk of getting admitted into hospital or even dying of COVID.
The US has recently surpassed 700,000 COVID-related deaths, according to data brought by worldometers.info. In fact, the country is a few dozen souls away from reaching 720,000 deaths. We’re looking at these info with huge sadness. Also, according to the latter source, the United States’ most affected states are (in order) California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois
