Amid the continued surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant across the United States and around the world, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer made an announcement on Sunday, Jan. 2, about both testing in New York, and a new push to deliver New York State with enough of the newest weapon in the war on COVID: antiviral pills.

 

The FDA recently authorized two antiviral pills to treat people with #COVID19. Both antiviral pills are currently only available to people who have tested positive and are at the highest risk for severe illness from COVID-19. 

 

Schumer said that science has finally delivered antiviral medications to treat COVID-19 that act in a similar manner to the Tamiflu antiviral medication that patients take for the influenza virus. However, Schumer said that New York State will not have enough of a supply of the new COVID antivirals to meet the current need and he is therefore urging the Biden administration to act by directing these new medications to surge areas, like New York.

 

“One of the most important new developments in the fight to beat back this pandemic are the new over-the-counter antivirals,” said Schumer. “To oversimplify it, these medications are like Tamiflu – but for COVID. For the past two years, there were essentially two types of COVID patients. Those who didn’t need to be hospitalized and could grit it out at home, and those whose condition became so severe that they needed to be hospitalized. For those who stayed at home, you were largely told to rest, stay in touch with your doctor and hope you didn’t become one of those patients that needed to be hospitalized. Now, thank God, there is a third option. Two new COVID pills that can dramatically reduce the chance of someone needing to be hospitalized, and it might very well save their life.”

 

Norwood News first reported on such antiviral medications in November 2021, when, as part of an international phase 3 clinical trial, officials at the Bronx-based Montefiore Health System and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine announced they were jointly investigating whether the Merck antiviral pill, molnupiravir, approved in early November in Britain for treating COVID-19, could prevent COVID-19 in unvaccinated individuals living with people who had contracted the disease and get the necessary approval to be used in the U.S. For more information on how the pills work, click here.

 

NPR has also reported that Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s molnupiravir are 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% for Paxlovid and 30% 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.

 

Schumer continued, “Because these pills are new, supply has yet to meet demand, and that’s the case here in New York,” He added, “The Biden administration just made a major decision to purchase all available doses of these new antivirals, and I applaud that, but we need to send these medications to states where Omicron is surging first. Right now, New York will not have enough of these pills to meet the health demand —and, so, we are here to ensure a fair allocation of these new antivirals so we can keep those most at-risk recovering at home. The pills should go where the surges are, and that means states like New York.”

 

 

Schumer, the U.S. senate majority leader, said the reason for this antiviral supply lag is because the antiviral medications are new and because production is still ramping up. He said that, in the meantime, the feds should prioritize the antivirals that are available to surge communities so that they aren’t potentially unused. He said the new antivirals are necessary to keep people out of local hospitals and recovering at home.

 

According to New York State, State officials have received a limited supply of two brands of these antiviral medications, Paxlovid (made by Pfizer) and molnupiravir (made by Merck) from the federal government. New York State’s distribution methodology for this new oral antiviral category of COVID-19 medications is to distribute the medications on a pro rata population basis to every region in New York State, initially.

 

In fact, Schumer’s office said 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 the antiviral medication 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, Schumer’s office reported that while supplies remain scarce, only a few pharmacies in each county will receive the antivirals. It should be noted that COVID-19 patients will require a prescription for Paxlovid and molnupiravir.

• Within New York City, please refer to: COVID-19: Outpatient Therapeutic Information for Providers – NYC Health
• Outside of New York City, the following is a list of pharmacy locations: List of Pharmacy Locations (PDF)

 

 

Schumer also announced on Sunday that additional mobile COVID-19 testing sites, including four sites in the Bronx, based on need, and urged for more to follow.

o   two sites at St James Park 2550 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY 10468

o   two sites at Crotona Pool Corner of Fulton Ave and East 173^rd St Bronx NY 11377

Several other sites are currently operational across New York City.

 

Meanwhile, Guardian Angels founder, Curtis Sliwa, who recently lost the New York City mayoral race to Mayor Eric Adams, has his eyes on flipping Schumer‘s senate seat in 2022.

 

Showing he intends to remain a player in the Republican Party, Sliwa has launched a new Super PAC aimed at defeating Schumer, who is up for re-election next year.

 

“I am more committed than ever to advancing our Republican values and priorities and holding liberal elitists accountable for failing New York and America,” Sliwa said as part of his mission statement. He also told The NY Post his “Save the Senate,” political action committee plans to raise millions of dollars to pummel Schumer and promote a Republican opponent to run against Schumer.

 

Learn more about the antiviral treatments here: https://on.nyc.gov/covid19treatment.