Top US health official tests positive for Covid-19 again

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has tested positive for Covid-19 a second time after undergoing treatment with Pfizer’s antiviral drug, the organization revealed on Monday. 

“CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky experienced mild symptoms from her recent COVID-19 infection, completed a course of Paxlovid, and, after a period of isolation, tested negative for the virus,’’ the agency said in a statement. On Sunday, however, “Walensky began to develop mild symptoms and has again tested positive.”

Walensky first tested positive for Covid-19 on October 22, a month after receiving a bivalent booster shot that contained elements of the original form of the virus as detected in December 2019 in Wuhan and the more recent Omicron variant.

President Joe Biden and his chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci also experienced rebound Covid-19 infections after taking Paxlovid. Both contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated and boosted.

In September, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed positive Covid-19 tests and rebound infections were more common in patients treated with Paxlovid than the drug’s manufacturer had previously acknowledged. Patients experiencing rebound infections were also found to be just as capable of spreading the disease as their untreated counterparts. 

Pfizer responded to the news by promising to study re-treating those patients with more Paxlovid, though there is no evidence that this is an effective treatment. Experts from the National Institutes of Health have stated they do not believe a five-day course of Paxlovid is sufficient for the body to develop a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. 

Last month, a Pfizer executive admitted that the company’s vaccines had never been proven effective in preventing Covid-19 infection, despite widespread belief they did just that. CEO Albert Bourla had acknowledged in December 2020 as the vaccine was rolled out in the US that he was “not certain” the jab prevented transmission.

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