Doctors find limited use for less effective COVID pill

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/02/22/ [login to see] /doctors-find-limited-use-for-less-effective-covid-pill
If you're just getting sick with COVID-19, and you're at high risk for severe disease, there are two kinds of pills – scattered across pharmacies in the U.S. – that could help prevent you from getting worse. But doctors say the two pills are not equal.

These antiviral pills – molnupiravir from Merck and Paxlovid from Pfizer – help stop the virus from spreading throughout the body, when taken early in the course of illness. Both were authorized by the FDA towards the end of December, and are distributed by the U.S. government.

But molnupiravir is a much less effective drug, and many doctors have been reluctant to prescribe it. "It's an alternative rather than a first-line drug, and I think that's why the utilization is lower," says Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, of Mass General Hospital in Boston, who helps develop COVID-19 treatment guidelines for the NIH and the IDSA, a medical society.

Both antivirals are five-day pill courses that can only be prescribed to someone who's tested positive for COVID, and must be started within five days of getting symptoms.