Photo Courtesy of Sen. Schumer
Senator Schumer said that New York will not have enough supply of new COVID antivirals to meet the current need as he urged the Biden administration to act by directing these new medications to surge areas, like New York.
By Forum Staff
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday made an announcement about testing in New York and then touted a new push to deliver the state enough of the newest weapon in the war on COVID: antivirals.
Schumer said that science has finally delivered ‘Tamiflu’ for COVID, also known as antiviral medications that act very similar to the Tamiflu antiviral patients take for the influenza virus. However, Schumer said that New York will not have enough supply of these new COVID antivirals to meet the current need as he urged the Biden administration to act by directing these new medications to surge areas, like New York.
Schumer said the reason for this antiviral supply lag is because the antiviral medications are new and because production is still ramping up. Schumer said that, in the meantime, the feds should prioritize the antivirals that are available to surge communities so that they aren’t potentially unused. Schumer said these new antivirals are necessary to keep people out of local hospitals and recovering at home.
According to NPR, Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s molnupiravir are both oral antiviral pills that can be taken at home to keep patients out of the hospital. They’re meant to be taken within the first few days of having COVID-19, and they reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by up to 88 percent for Paxlovid and 30 percent for molnupiravir. NPR added that, right now, they’re just for patients at the highest risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness. For example, people with weakened immune systems, including transplant patients and older adults, are especially vulnerable. So many of the hundreds of thousands of people testing positive for the coronavirus daily would not be candidates for the treatments. The Department of Health and Human Services allocated around 65,000 treatment courses of Paxlovid and 300,000 courses of molnupiravir to states and programs around the country last week. State health departments, like New York’s, get to decide which clinics, hospitals, local health departments and pharmacies will receive shipments, and then they can be shipped out.
According to New York State, they have received a limited supply of both Paxlovid and molnupiravir from the federal government. New York State’s distribution methodology for the new oral antiviral category of COVID-19 medications is to initially distribute on a pro rata population basis to every region in New York State. The City of New York has elected to receive its distribution to one pharmacy that will do home delivery to all boroughs in New York City. The rest of the state’s nine regions are having their doses delivered to pharmacies in counties within their regions. Pharmacies were chosen based upon population density, as well as Medicaid population density.
During the initial weeks of allocation, when supplies remain scarce, only a few pharmacies in each county will receive the antivirals. Patients will require a prescription for Paxlovid and molnupiravir.
Schumer also announced additional mobile COVID testing sites today, based on need, and he urged more to follow. Several other sites are currently operational across New York City:
- 2 at Travers Park on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights
- 2 at Queens Valley Playground Corner of 137th Street and 77th Avenue in Flushing
- 2 at Helen Marshall Playground 100th Street and 24th Avenue in East Elmhurst
- 2 at Hart Playground Corner of 65th street and Broadway, Woodside
