#paxlovid
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Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it
When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.
Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.
I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.
Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.
All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.
But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)
Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.
Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.
The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.
Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.
Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.
This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.
Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.
Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.
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https://wapo.st/49z3ocf
If you live in the United States, and have Medicare, Medicaid or no insurance you can get Paxlovid easily and for free for as many times as you need it. There is a new program called Pax Access
Even if you have health care insurance that will charge you a copay, you can use this program as well
All you need is a prescription. No proof of a positive COVID test, no health questionnaire and once you sign up you can take the coupon to your pharmacy immediately
Gift article, no paywall
https://wapo.st/49z3ocf
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transcript:
"So I'm just getting over my first covid infection, and this is a PSA to fucking get paxlovid. I managed to get it within the first 24 hours of having symptoms, and I went from feeling like I got hit by a truck to practically having no symptoms within four days. Since nobody fucking masks anymore, but you should, I think it's important to have a plan for what you will do when you inevitably get covid, and try to reduce the impact that will have on you and your health.
Paxlovid not only reduces the symptoms that you have from covid, but also reduces the chance of developing long-covid after infection.
If you don't have a plan for how you will get paxlovid if you get infected with covid, send your doctor a message right now and ask "What would be the quickest and most effective way for me to get paxlovid if I get a covid infection."
It does have a lot of medications that it can't be taken with, so keep an eye out for that, you might not be able to take it. But cases are up significantly right now, and it's important to have a plan of what you will do to take care of yourself, if you get infected.
Also, take care of yourself and your community by masking, please." [end transcript]
❗️please read❗️ i should mention its still regulated to just be prescribed for “high risk” patients, but in the words of my doctor “thats stupid, everyone should have it”. So just keep that in mind when trying to get it. My doctor asked if ive ever had anxiety or depression, i said yes, and that was enough to get it. It was $6 with my insurance, but that will of course vary person to person. Repeat infections lead to higher chances of long covid, so having tools to resuce that chance is crurial to navigating this mass disabling event. Also take it with food, or the taste it leaves in your mouth will be even worse.
source, spencer_sunboy on tiktok
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For U.S. residents who are on Medicare, Medicaid, or are uninsured, and who have been prescribed the antiviral Paxlovid (used to reduce the severity of COVID19), the medication is free through Pfizer's patient assistance program. People who have private insurance might also be able to use the link reduce their co-pay.
(Or if you prefer the phone to a website, you can call 877-219-7225 to sign up.)
The list price for Paxlovid is $1400 for the five-day course, and now that the federal government is no longer providing the medication for free, some people are being told by pharmacies that they have to pay list price (because they are uninsured, or because the medicine is not covered on their insurance). If that's you -- or if your co-pay is steeper than you can afford -- please check out the patient assistance program above!
(Hat tip to Dr. Leana S. Wen at the Washington Post, who talked about the program in her latest column.)
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Things the anti-Covid medicine Paxlovid makes the inside of your mouth perpetually taste like, a not-exhaustive list
Licking a hot metal slide on a humid August morning
The results of an hourlong makeout session with Optimus Prime, wherein he has the alien robot equivalent of morning breath
Taking the water and coins out of an old fountain at an abandoned mall, and boiling it into a tea.
In the hopes of not getting a dirty martini, purposely ordering a “clean martini” only for the bartender to wildly misunderstand and add a sizeable squirt of grapefruit-scented dishwashing detergent to your glass, and then drinking it all at once.
The burps you'd get from really pounding a frying pan-flavored LaCroix
That urban legend about how you can dissolve a spoon in a cup of cola, but then you drank the spoon and only the spoon
The transcendent relief that your Covid isn't worse...but also you kind of put your whole mouth around a parking meter?
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Canada following in America's footsteps yet again...
#mask up#covid#covid 19#covid isn't over#pandemic#covid conscious#covid is airborne#wear a mask#coronavirus#paxlovid#canada
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#leftism#anti capitalism#communism#socialism#anarchy#cdc#covid19#covid pandemic#paxlovid#pandemic#covid#disease#hospitals#doctors#medicine#health care#medical care
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Paxlovid Warning for Guanfacine
Guanfacine is contraindicated by Paxlovid, and if you take Paxlovid, you shouldn't take Guanfacine for about a week. Any doctor prescribing or the pharmacist administering should warn you in advance, but this post is some alternatives for the people who take it for anxiety or mood reasons based on my own personal experiences and NOT as a medical professional.
If you take Guanfacine to help sleep, I recommend melatonin. If you already take melatonin, try doubling or tripling your dose. If you take ambien, be aware Paxlovid can increase its potency or overdose risk, and try halving or quartering your regular dose.
If you take a benzodiazepine as a rescue med, be aware Paxlovid will increase its potency and overdose risk. Try halving or quartering your regular dose.
If you take marijauna for sleep or anxiety, there's no official medical info on how the drugs interact but be very careful about dosing. Same as above, try quartering or halving your normal dose.
Again, not a medical professional, but figured it might be helpful for people to be aware in advance.
#paxlovid#covid#guanfacine#REALLY looking forward to taking guanfacine again#grateful for the paxlovid don't get me wrong but there is a lot of yelling in my head
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i got covid for the first time early last month and it was minor, I thought. the second I tested positive I contacted my doctor and got paxlovid prescribed to me. I picked it up the same day and started taking the twice daily medication that night.
yes, paxlovid can help reduce/minimize long covid symptoms so I thought I would be fine. but to this day I still am only in the begining steps of recovering from the brainfog, forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, and trouble paying attention for longer periods of time.
it's horrible. it sucks shit. I am constantly missing my exits and turns when I drive, even WITH a navigator on my phone. I stop talking in the middle of sentences bc I forget what I was even talking about in the first place.
the way covid affected my brain makes me feel like I got another concussion, but without the pain or the dizziness or the nausea or any of the typical physical concussion symptoms that come with one.
I constantly see people in all groups all ages not masking over here. or coughing into the open air and sneezing without covering their nose and mouth with their elbow. didn't we learn this in preschool. what's your problem??? if you can do anything to stop or prevent someone else's suffering then why wouldn't you???
#cant wait to move out of this shitty rich stuck up old ppl town purely bc i know and have seen more folks mask in public over the mountain.#covid cw#covid 19#leaf talking#paxlovid#thank you for listeningto me rant . im so pissed still. i dont understand people who arent afraid of catching it or putting in effort to not#and then at work they ask me why im masking and its like ohhhh ae you sick?#and i say no!!! im trying to avoid it!!!#and then they ask me why im afraid of illness and i ask them why aren't You
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I’ve decided the taste of paxlovid is the taste of 🔥🔥VIRUS DYING🔥🔥 which means THIS IS THE BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES UPON MY TONGUE AS THEY FALL BEFORE MY DEFENSES
(It's so yucky I have to romanticize it somehow)
#I made it almost four years without getting reinfected and I am taking this personally#covid isn't over#covid#tw covid#tw meds mention#paxlovid#chronic illness#fibromyalgia#me/cfs#disability#gastroparesis#migraine#postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome#chronic fatigue#chronic pain#pots#long covid#wear a mask#mask up#pandemic
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More information about Stanford research goals and the RECOVER Program/Initiative:
#covid-19#covid 19#sars cov 2#covid#long covid#long haul covid#Stanford#Clinical Trials#Paxlovid#Antivirals#Research#RECOVER#RECOVER Program#National Institute of Health#NIH#Institutonal Review Board#IRB
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New study: Paxlovid rebound is much more likely if you initiate it within the first 2 days:
29% if started on day 1
17% on day 2
0% on day 3 or later
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The COVID was the easiest part. I was practically asymptomatic. I walked the dog, drove four hours in the car, hiked the beach, canoed. This was in late June. The doctors in my life should have understood that this spooky absence of symptoms was an ominous sign—my immune-compromised self wasn’t putting up a fight when it should have. Instead, they all brushed off my concerns when I rang. To a person, they steered me away from Paxlovid.
Remember that crazy national moment when doctors were being weird about Paxlovid? And were really down on it? I got COVID in that brief window.
I cannot tell you how often I go back to that moment and take Paxlovid. It’s the world’s most unproductive form of magical thinking, trying to undetonate this bomb. And yet I do.
Anyway, around day 10, things went south. I was suddenly dizzy every moment of the day. The world looked like The Blair Witch Project, always bouncing. It bounced when I chewed. Then came the tinnitus, the ear fullness. Ménière’s disease seemed likely.
Google Ménière’s disease. It’s very challenging. I have nothing but compassion for those who have it.
Many elaborate tests later, I turned out not to have it.
The nature of my dizziness changed, feeling more like a gyroscope was spinning in my head, or like I was being pulled slantwise by magnetic raindrops, every damn second. Then came the whale of all symptoms: My head started to vibrate, painfully, every time I walked or talked.
People have asked me a lot about this. I really don’t know how else to explain it. I mean, imagine a tuning fork inside your brain. Every time I take a step, I feel it in my skull. Ditto when I speak. My latest combo of meds blunts most of the pain that comes with it. But the vibrating remains, and it’s driving me mad. I’m waiting on my insurance company to approve Botox injections to my skull. (Oh, the irony of being a 53-year-old woman praying for Botox in a place where it will have no visible aesthetic benefit.)
Then my standing heart rate got too fast. (Now it’s fine.) Then my blood pressure spiked when I stood, plus other forms of autonomic dysregulation. My eyeballs spin freely in their sockets for the first 20 minutes of each morning, for instance. Then my chest started to ache. Maybe from the blood-pressure spikes, maybe something else. And I’m short of breath now when I walk, as I said.
You see the problem, right? My aching chest, my breathlessness—it all means more doctors. And I am really, really sick of doctors. Most of them know nothing, and if they can’t help you, they have little time for you. Many of them dramatically underestimate quality of life as an issue.
The shape-shifting nature of long-COVID symptoms also makes our medical system ill-suited to deal with long COVID. (Actually, it’s ill-suited for a thousand reasons. But this is one.) Telling your long-COVID story in 15 minutes, which is what most doctors have for you, is not possible. You develop shorthand. You resort to metaphors. Both are problems. One doctor asked if I thought there was an actual gyroscope in my head, for instance. “Uh, this is a vestibular problem I’m describing,” I said, “not a psychiatric one.” Asshole.
The worst part? Because no one understands what causes long COVID, even the best doctors can only treat your symptoms separately. My blood pressure gets two medications. My vibrating head gets a third. My vestibular symptoms get a fourth. My pain gets a fifth. Inflammation gets a sixth. The microclots I may or may not have, which may or may not cause long COVID, require three different supplements, which may or may not work.
This said, the long-COVID team at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital at least thinks holistically, even if they don’t know what lurks at the heart of my problems. I feel lucky to be under their care (plus two dogged and creative immunologists at Columbia Presbyterian). I cannot imagine what it’s like for the millions of Americans who don’t have access to the minds and resources I do.
— What Not to Ask Me About My Long COVID
#jennifer senior#what not to ask me about my long covid#current events#medicine#science#biology#human biology#illness#disability#chronic illness#covid 19#long covid#paxlovid
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[Image Description 1: Kasim Kelvin from Be Kind, My Neighbor holding his hand out and smiling with glistening anime eyes while “LET’S TAKE PAXLOVID TOGETHER” is written above and below him. He’s a fat afrojewish man with long hair in a ponytail and a beard, he’s wearing a sailor school uniform, and he’s drawn only in shades of purple. This drawing references the “Let’s take ibuprofen together” meme. End ID 1.]
[Image Description 2: My fursona, a brown sheep with teal wool and horns sitting with a green blanket wrapped around them who’s wearing a grad cap. They look tired and have a fever, and “Just Graduated!” is written above them. End ID 2.]
I got COIVD lol. Also I finally graduated! Just finished the last of my classes a few weeks ago. Finally got my Bachelors of Social Work! Too bad I’m too tired to draw anything rn in celebration beyond these phone doodles haha.
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i have covid rn.
currently taking paxlovid.
both my husband and i are struggling with paxlovid mouth
but i might have just figured it out!!! drinking a mango powerade mixed with water, ice, and a LOT of tajin totally removes it!!! put tajin or chili powder in your drink to deal with paxlovid mouth!!
i can finally concentrate on things that arent bad mouth
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