I’m sick and came to the doctor to get tested for covid, strep, and flu, since those are going around my work. I asked the doctor if I could get paxlovid if the covid test was positive, and he goes “Oh I don’t think you’d need it”
Motherfucker almost everyone who catches covid should be fucking taking it wtf is wrong with you. Oh I’m young and otherwise healthy? Yeah and I’d like to fucking stay that way thank you very much, and I’ll take any reduction in the chance of becoming permanently disabled.
Also of the medical professionals I saw today, they were only wearing surgical masks, not N95s and I can’t comprehend it. Why in the hell would you go into the room of a likely covid case not wearing an N95 are you insane?
I’m so fucking sick of being the only person in this entire town that’s actually worried about catching this disease, even the fucking doctors don’t care anymore. I work in a research facility attached to a hospital and when I go to the food court and shit at best like 1/25 people are wearing masks. In a hospital.
Thank you Mr Joe Brandon for ending the pandemic, you’ve truly cemented your place among history’s greatest killers.
Nobody can write the Black Book of Capitalism if there are no survivors.
It’s fucking insane to me how people are acting with covid. It’s like everybody stopped paying attention because it was too stressful. But I’m hearing people cough at work and I’m one of three people wearing a mask.
As far as paxlovid, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some extra reporting work required to prescribe paxlovid and the doctors don’t want to bother with it. That’s what I’ve noticed with our kinds of prescription or medical issues. Procedures are medications that can really help end up behind paperwork and medical professionals with fried brains.
was recently compelled by the state to appear for jury duty. I looked around the windowless, closed-door courtroom and out of around sixty people it was me and one other person wearing a mask, and the other person took it off after five minutes and never put it back on. I had to be in there for six hours
IIRC shouting “JURY NULLIFICATION” will get you booted out of selection pretty quick.
That is illegal, so don’t do this.
The one doctor I can get urgent care with has covid culture war brain rot “just use XYZ supplements to boost your immune system” okay I will but that doesn’t mean I will skip paxlovid to play Russian roulette with long covid or me/cfs.
It was a struggle to get him to prescribe paxlovid to my 68 y/o mother because her case was “too mild.”
Shouting “get proletarianized” as I kickflip off some shithead GP’s head because he told me to “just get some sun” when asking about my fucked up skin.
That’s literally the worst advice, that’ll fuck your skin more
If you are COVID-positive, acknowledge to your doctor that he doesn’t think you need it but tell him that you want Paxlovid anyway. If your doctor still refuses, Dr. B (https://hidrb.com/covid/paxlovid) prescribes you Paxlovid for $15
Motherfucker almost everyone who catches covid should be fucking taking it
I’ve got a friend who is a pulminologist and he strongly disagrees. As he explained it, paxlovid has its own side-effects, there isn’t a limitless supply of it, and if you’re young and healthy and vaccinated already you’re not going to see a meaningful reduction in symptoms. So the value-add of taking it relative to the self-inflicted suffering generally isn’t considered worth it unless you’re in an at-risk category.
I’m so fucking sick of being the only person in this entire town that’s actually worried about catching this disease, even the fucking doctors don’t care anymore.
I’m hard pressed to name anyone who hasn’t caught it at least once by now, save for my 76 year old mother who was practically a shut-in before the disease started. I got it the first time from a foster kid I was caring for who got it from daycare (which are all basically petri dishes particularly given how understaffed they’ve become). I got it the second time from my friends’ kids, during D&D, because public school is basically just daycare with more standardized tests now. We all came through it without long-term issues, because we were all vax’d, got bed rest during the peak of it, and we took care of one another.
At some point, you’ve got to trust the guy who writes the pharmaceutical prescriptions or whats the fucking point of doctors at all? This isn’t a panacea for the pandemic. Because it doesn’t interact well with other medications, it is absolutely NOT for everyone. And its generally not wise to over-prescribe something this new out on the market anyway, for a whole host of reasons.
I work in a research facility attached to a hospital and when I go to the food court and shit at best like 1/25 people are wearing masks. In a hospital.
That does seem dumb as hell.
If it makes you feel any better, other countries have people with more sense. I visited Japan in February, and practically everyone there was masked all the time everywhere.
Frustrating as hell that more people don’t. But that’s a much different issue than whether your doctor should issue you anti-virals.
there isn’t a limitless supply of it
Fauci lied about the effectiveness of masks to preserve supply and turned half the US into anti-maskers, even though there’s now a shitton of masks (with N-95s still being expensive instead of free like they should be). Pfizer could certainly maintain an artificial scarcity to jack up the Paxlovid price even more, but if more people are buying Paxlovid, they’ll make more Paxlovid. It’s pretty horrible that Pfizer has exclusivity to manufacture Paxlovid, and that exclusivity doesn’t expire until 2041.
and if you’re young and healthy and vaccinated already you’re not going to see a meaningful reduction in symptoms.
This is inaccurate. Getting COVID depletes your T-cells for 2 years if you don’t take Paxlovid, young & healthy or not. So the first COVID infection will likely be less severe, but depleted T cells means that the 2nd infection, 3rd infection etc. will be more severe.
Also, “healthy” is misleading, because it implies that being physiologically healthy is sufficient to be able to raw-dog COVID and turn out okay anyway. Anecdotally, my young and physiologically healthy, vaccinated friend got COVID in summer 2022. Neurologically speaking, though, he’s on the autism spectrum, has major depression, OCD, and Tourette syndrome, which makes him high risk for more severe symptoms. I pushed for him to get Paxlovid, but a family member in the medical field convinced him that Paxlovid was unnecessary, citing reasoning similar to what you suggested above. He got long COVID, has trouble thinking and focusing, and now, 14 months later, it hasn’t gotten any better. He has to deal with long COVID from that single COVID infection for life, all because someone convinced him that a young, physiologically healthy, vaccinated person like him didn’t need Paxlovid.
Does your pulmonologist friend mask?
In the office, absolutely.
Not outside it?
Why would you wear a mask outside unless there’s pollution or covid spreads through the wind, which i don’t think is happening otherwise there would be more panic on here at least
Oh, I meant outside the office in their personal life. But if you’re in a crowd or something you should definitely be masked.
Not when we’re playing board games, no.
then their opinions on covid are worth less than dog shit lmao
I’m hard pressed to name anyone who hasn’t caught it at least once by now
It’s me I’ve never caught it. Part luck, part being very careful.
At some point, you’ve got to trust the guy who writes the pharmaceutical prescriptions or whats the fucking point of doctors at all?
Doctors in the US kinda suck. They are low on time due to patient:nurse/doctor ratios (due to capitalism) and end up (1) harboring a lot of ridiculously bad ideas, even when it comes to healthcare, and (2) relying heavily on computer systems and rote-memorized protocols to fill in gaps. The only time I feel okay relying solely on a doctor’s opinion is if I have no other choice - no second opinion, no weeks of time to study a topic and self-diagnose about as well if not better than they can (figured out my own chronic issue this way after a battery of stab-in-the-dark tests and offers of black label meds didn’t lead anywhere).
I don’t expect them to, on average, have the time or environment for good critical thinking. It’s structural.
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Plenty of “young healthy people” are in the ground thanks to covid my very close friend among them
From personal experience when I had covid I felt like absolute dog shit started paxlovid day 2 and by day 3 felt 70% better.
I trust the for profit American health care system 0%, and I trust doctors as much as I trust pit vipers. If something is out there that is going to help better my odds I’m taking it, and fuck anyone who tries to convince me otherwise your vampire pulmonologist friend included.
The drug interaction concern is a good one but that research is publicly available for you to do.
The drug interaction concern is a good one but that research is publicly available for you to do.
Christ, I hate when people play these games. “Don’t trust doctors, do your own research”.
Research authored by whom?
research authored by researchers who actually investigate the subject at hand? you know doctors aren’t connected by a hivemind right?
My sister’s father in law is an elderly GP that voted for Trump and was out eating at restaurants the week Florida came out of lockdown. Florida’s surgeon general is an anti-vaxxer. The very people at the CDC who are supposed to be looking out for us recently had a conference where like 200 people caught Covid.
I, personally, am going to listen to the Doctors and Researchers who aren’t flat out ignoring an ongoing mass disabling event.
Which Doctor/Research is saying everyone should take paxlovid?
As far as I’m concerned, any research that shows that paxlovid significantly reduces the chance of Long Covid. Of which there is now plenty.
The outstanding body of research says that Paxlovid carries numerous significantly deleterious side effects, as well as a multitude of complications with other prescriptions.
For the same reason you shouldn’t start taking antibiotics without consulting a physician, there are numerous reasons why you wouldn’t want to start treatment on paxlovid without a doctor’s approval.
Yeah, no shit. Like you said, like antibiotics and every drug. Which is why I’m doing my best to avoid getting covid in the first place. And wish everybody else was helping with that. But since they’re fucking not, if it comes down to risk of brain damage, heart damage, every other organ damage, I’m gonna take the paxlovid.
What deleterious side effects does paxlovid have that covid doesn’t have similar or worse effects? No one is saying that people should just be taking paxlovid all the time randomly, but there is basically no question that it’s better than just letting the virus go
My doc was also not thrilled about prescribing it but agreed to if I… came into the office, where btw no one will be masking. I tried getting it through CVS online consult but they never called, at that point my symptoms were waning so I gave up. Long COVID for all!
Just eat the horse paste
I’m trying to decide if, when I eventually get it again, I should straight up tell the teleDoc that I will go from doctor to doctor until I get a scrip so they might as well give me one now, or if I should lie about my bmi instead.
Got depression (and who doesn’t lol)? You’re high risk. Use a prescriber bot. When I had covid I used Dr. B. It will check for medical interactions.
Gatekeeping paxlovid is completely nonsensical there’s gotta be mountains of surplus doses.
If you didn’t end up getting a prescription, you can do an online consult, I went to hidrb.com when I had COVID a few weeks ago and got a script sent to a pharmacy, it was relatively hassle free except for costing $15. Good luck friend!!
Some doctors are just ignorant and bought into the"it’s just a cold, bro" bs, or think covid is only dangerous if you’re over 65, because thats the messaging we are getting from the media and health officials.
The only reason you wouldn’t want to take paxlovid is if you are on a medication it can negatively interact with.
Considering there is no cure for long covid, why would anyone not try to decrease their chances of getting it?
With respect, you are not a doctor. You have no concept of how complex the decisions are around prescribing medications. Do you know the number needed to treat vs number needed to harm for Paxlovid?. Do you have any idea what the drug does and in which populations it has been studied?
You’re young and healthy. You don’t need Paxlovid. End of story. It’s only indicated for over 70s / immunosuppressed / significant cardiorespiratory comorbidity to prevent hospitalisation and death. The decision of whether ir not to prescribe a drug is more complex and nuanced that “I have virus, give me virus pill”. Do you really think your doctor has never heard of long COVID?
It is not just some magic pill to be thrown around “just in case” to young healthy people anxious about rare complications.
Every time you prescribe it you roll the dice. You might be selecting for a strain that is resistant to Paxlovid. You might have an unwanted side effect or allergy. You might have picked up the last pack from your local pharmacy which means the 80 year old diabetic with a kidney transplant can’t get it.
You have no concept of how complex the decisions are around prescribing medications.
“Will I get reprimanded by my hospital’s board of directors if I prescribe desperately needed medication to the poors?”
You’re young and healthy. You don’t need Paxlovid. End of story.
“Life expectancy for anyone under the age of 40 isn’t going to decrease itself!”
Also: everyone infected with covid has a ten to twenty percent chance of getting long covid, which currently has no cure. Paxlovid reduces that chance. So prescribe it!
Do you really think your doctor has never heard of long COVID?
Many such cases of doctors assuming that long covid is some kind of psychological issue. The real psychological issue is that doctors tend to come from rich families who have nothing but contempt for workers. I know because my spouse is a nurse and I come from a family of doctors.
It is not just some magic pill to be thrown around “just in case” to young healthy people anxious about rare complications. Every time you prescribe it you roll the dice. You might be selecting for a strain that is resistant to Paxlovid. You might have an unwanted side effect or allergy. You might have picked up the last pack from your local pharmacy which means the 80 year old diabetic with a kidney transplant can’t get it.
Cool. Explain this to the patient who wants paxlovid and let them make the decision. Problem solved! I know you’ll feel guilty about treating workers like human beings, but don’t worry, I’m sure your bourgeois puppet masters will find some other way to make up for whatever labor is spent on preventing yet more needless death and misery.
Also, thanks for letting us know you’re a doctor. I fucking LOVE dunking on doctors! You all think you’re so fucking smart, but you’d be nothing without your family’s inherited stolen wealth 😉 . How many examples are there of people impersonating doctors for years without being found out? And whenever they ARE discovered, it’s never because they’ve harmed a patient. It’s always because some bourgeois signifier (i.e., the watch isn’t golden enough) is off.
I presume you’re American because you insist wealth is a prerequisite to a medical degree. My parents were low-middle income before they retired. We ate 2 minute noodles at least twice a week and Dad grew most of the veggies. I went to a shitty public high school. I worked hard, got good grades and scored well in the entry exam. Nowhere in any of this was the question of money ever an issue. The government pays (well, loans really) the university fee and I was on welfare for the duration of my studies, which is less than minimum wage so I had a part time job as well.
Paxlovid has not been studied in the prevention of long COVID, and another closely related antiviral combination (lopinavir + ritonavir) has actially been shown to increase the odds ratio of long COVID by 92%.
I’m done arguing with non-doctors about this.
I presume you’re American because you insist wealth is a prerequisite to a medical degree. My parents were low-middle income before they retired. We ate 2 minute noodles at least twice a week and Dad grew most of the veggies. I went to a shitty public high school. I worked hard, got good grades and scored well in the entry exam. Nowhere in any of this was the question of money ever an issue. The government pays (well, loans really) the university fee and I was on welfare for the duration of my studies, which is less than minimum wage so I had a part time job as well.
Wow, you definitely earned everything you have by the sweat of your own brow! But you’re Australian, aren’t you? Just ignore the mountain of aboriginal skeletons and the ocean of aboriginal blood underneath you. You are very much a man of the people!
Paxlovid has not been studied in the prevention of long COVID, and another closely related antiviral combination (lopinavir + ritonavir) has actially been shown to increase the odds ratio of long COVID by 92%.
“The analysis showed that Paxlovid reduced the risk of long COVID-19 by 26% over a six-month period.”
Oops! Actually, it has been studied! And actually, it does help! You are objectively incorrect! How many people are dead or living in misery because you chose to protect your bosses rather than the vulnerable? Maybe you should have gone to medical school in Cuba, where they actually train doctors to help people regardless of how much money they have?
Please read the article and come at me with nitpicky details. You have made a terrible mistake by arguing about covid with a communist, even as I strongly suspect you stopped masking years ago and are constantly infecting the people around you with disease. As you go about your day and judge whether to provide expensive medications to save the lives of poor people, remember that it was a communist with no medical training or expertise who defeated you here, fair and square.
I’m done arguing with non-doctors about this.
Must be nice knowing that it’s not just the anti-vaxx weirdos second-guessing you all the time. Anyone with any experience with doctors is constantly googling whatever you tell us because we know you work for the bourgeoisie, not for the 99%.
You know that feeling you get when you’re a subject matter expert and some moron tries to argue with you by googling their own opinion and linking a news article in which one of the lead authors has declared conflict of interest by consulting for the manufacturer of the drug they wrote a paper about? Yeah, that’s why I’m done arguing with non-doctors on this topic.
You are not a communist, you are just another American white boy in a Che Guevara tshirt who blames his own failure on capitalism and a system set up against them in the same way incels blame their loneliness on women who fail to see them as they see themselves. Both a conveniently external locus of control.
Thankyou for inspiring me to block hexbear BTW
How is this specific study incorrect? If you examined the data, would you draw a different conclusion?
You have no concept of how complex the decisions are around prescribing medications. Do you know the number needed to treat vs number needed to harm for Paxlovid?. Do you have any idea what the drug does and in which populations it has been studied?
With respect it sounds like you don’t know either and are vibing off the idea of what doctors are through cultural osmosis. Speaking from my own expertise around the history of healthcare and healthcare training most doctors are terrible people and their training is incredibly hostile to patients. That’s just the nature of for-profit healthcare.
You can trust doctors to do the bare minimum not to kill you but these people are incredibly neurotic, especially because they are culturally treated like Gods. There is more than enough academic literature to prove this, they’re not ubermensch, they’re usually rich kids that are just good at studying.
The far greater likelihood is that CCA has a bad doctor that uncritically swallows whatever the CDC tells them, ergo their doctor uncritically swallows information from a political organization responsible for killing millions through social murder.
Please hang out at a med school, talk to the students that are about to graduate. The good doctor that you’re imagining in your head is incredibly rare. American doctors in particular are trained to be extremely hostile and adversarial to their patients relative to other countries.
I’m a GP Anaesthetist
that explains the arrogance
That’s cool I hope you’re a good one lmao. Please listen to your patients.
I don’t know how much social and political training they give you where you live but when I’m organizing I see mistreatment daily and a I’ve come to recognize that key medical fields select for the worst possible people. I’ve had the privilege of knowing a respected psychologist and getting to watch him try to “fix” his autistic children and witnessed the mistreatment of countless trans patients.
Best case scenario you do everything right and your successors consider you a barbarian because you’re borne out of a system that insisted black people couldn’t feel pain until like 20 years ago. I’m sure you’re a nice enough person but yeah I’d bet money that CCA is experiencing medical neglect rather than a carefully considered decision.
