Thread by @Telegraph

💉Since the early days of the pandemic, politicians and epidemiologists have spoken overwhelmingly about one medical tool: vaccines

But then came the variants...

💊And that’s where molnupiravir – the game-changing Covid capsule – comes in

telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…

The antiviral drug was approved by the UK medicines regulator last month, bolstering the UK’s reputation as a medical first-mover

💊Antivirals target the genetic material in the middle of a virus particle, which generally doesn’t change from mutation to mutation.

This means they will probably perform well against every variant of Covid

Penny Ward, a leading expert in pharmaceutical medicine and visiting professor at King’s College London explains:

🗣️“It takes too much effort for the virus to change all of its internal proteins regularly.”

📉Molnupiravir has another advantage: it acts early.

"You simply swallow the capsules when you have the sniffles – and hopefully the sniffles are the worst it gets."

This would seriously reduce pressure on UK hospitals

The signs are promising.

In the US study last year, the drug cut the risk of hospitalisation in half when compared with a placebo

📉Another recently-developed antiviral, called Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer, looks even more effective, cutting the risk of hospitalisation and death by 89%.

The UK has ordered 250,000 doses of Pfizer’s drug, but it hasn’t yet been approved in the UK

So will Covid antivirals save us from further restrictions – and even bring us closer to the end of the pandemic?

Read the full report 👇
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…