Fully Vaccinated And Twice Boosted, President Biden Receives COVID-19 Treatment With Paxlovid: Reduces Risk Of Severe Disease

President Joe Biden in the Situation Room, White House. (Twitter/@POTUS)

JAKARTA - The President of the United States is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 using Pfizer's antiviral drug, Paxlovid, with only mild symptoms and has received the full vaccine and booster dose.

President Biden's antiviral drug Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the risk of severe disease by nearly 90 percent in high-risk patients if given within the first five days of infection.

However, Paxlovid has in some cases been associated with rebound infection, in which patients recover rapidly and test negative after five days of drug administration, with symptoms returning a few days later.

Dr. Bruce Farber, head of infectious diseases at Northwell Health in New York, which is not treating the president, said Paxlovid was likely the only treatment President Biden would receive unless his symptoms worsened.

"Older people are more at risk of developing complications from COVID," Farber said, citing Reuters, July 22. "It's dramatically lower if you've been vaccinated and boosted (booster) doubled, which he has done, so I anticipate he'll do it well. very well," he continued.

It was previously reported that US President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19, has very mild symptoms and will be isolated at the White House while still working.

Building Doctor Kevin O'Connor said in a statement released Thursday that President Biden had a runny nose, fatigue and an occasional dry cough, symptoms he began experiencing Wednesday night. He said President Biden had started using the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.

"He was fully vaccinated and twice received a booster, experiencing very mild symptoms," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The White House will provide daily updates on Biden's health, and he will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, while in isolation at the White House but still working, Karine said.

US COVID-19 cases rose more than 25 percent in the last month, according to CDC data, as the rapidly spreading BA.5 subvariant has taken over.

Able to evade the immune protection afforded by either vaccination or previous infection, BA.5 has been the dominant subvariant in the United States since at least early July and has driven a spike in new infections globally.