Even though the medical community has evolved manifold since 2020, when it received a jolt with the onset of COVID-19, there is still scope for better treatments. To date, the COVID-19 therapies comprising monoclonal antibodies and antivirals are making news! But several treatment scopes are unavailable, and some work effectively against the Omicron variant. Recently, there have been more eligible patients than the supply of treatments. Sometimes, some of the best treatments aren’t available in the emergency departments for urgent needs.
On the other hand, the COVID-19 vaccines are free and widely available. If you still need to be vaccinated and boosted against the virus, get it done at the earliest. There was a debate about whether or not the vaccine would curb freedom or not. The answer is no, and there is research to support that. According to a recent poll by MyBioSource, 68% of people in California and 63% of people in Florida think that the vaccine wouldn’t affect personal freedom in any way. Vaccination is necessary to keep ourselves from getting protected.
- Do the monoclonal antibodies work in a different way than the vaccines?
The monoclonal antibodies get described as artificial antibodies, which can combat the virus. The vaccine provides you with the required blueprint for developing your antibodies. A good and safe vaccine will offer baseline immunity and last almost six months. When it comes to antivirals, they will stay active for a few days. Most monoclonal antibodies can secure you for two months or so. The monoclonal antibodies can enable you to keep for significantly less time. Instead, it prepares the body to fight the virus.
Antivirals and monoclonal antibodies are short-term treatments, as they will not teach the body how to cope with the virus in case a person gets infected with it. As the therapy fades away, the protection also wears off. It is here that the vaccine has a meaningful role to play. It helps the body to teach how to combat COVID-19.
The lesson that your body learns is long lasting! You can stay secure from the virus in the future because your body develops its self-defense system. The vaccine will urge your body to come up with antibodies. On the other hand, monoclonal antibodies, which are the antibodies produced in the laboratory, offer passive immunity for a short time.
- Monoclonal treatments such as sotrovimab
Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies created by man. “They can start tackling the virus immediately, giving the body the added time to create an antibody. The best way to define these antibodies is by calling them the “front line” fighters.
A few of the monoclonal antibodies that got created last year aren’t proving to be effective against the Omicron variant. There has been a shift in the virus, and the available treatments have failed to interact with the virus. It comprises the casirivimab with imdevimab and bamlanivimab with estesevimab. And none of these monoclonal antibodies work against the Omicron variant.
The other monoclonal antibody, known as sotrovimab, can work very well against Omicron. However, there are very few doses, close to four or five treatments of the infusion, that are available every day. Several people qualify for the same. Therefore, the doctors will only provide this to people with a very high risk.
- Oral antiviral treatments such as molnupiravir and paxlovid
The FDA has authenticated two antiviral treatments: molnupiravir (Merck) and paxlovid (Pfizer). All these are oral as opposed to intravenous treatments. It means that they are pills. Most people initially thought that it was infusion. The antivirals like molnupiravir and paxlovid effectively attack the novel coronavirus. Both these drugs aim at the virus replication process.
When it comes to Paxlovid, it can slow down viral replication. It also prevents the enzyme that the virus requires to develop several copies of itself. And if this isn’t replicated, it can spread and help the immune system fight the virus better. There are studies where Paxlovid has proven to be almost 90% effective in averting illness progression.
And on the other hand, Molnupiravir can make the virus make specific mistakes each time it attempts to replicate itself. As a result, this treatment proves to be slightly less effective in treating the virus than Paxlovid. The other effective treatment is Remdesivir, which can block the machinery the novel coronavirus requires to make sure copies of itself. Hence, the virus doesn’t get replicated anymore.
These are some of the possible treatments the medical community claims can treat the virus and ensure that the percentage of suffering will be significantly less. However, this is not the end statement. There is ongoing research as the virus is continuously mutating. That means it is essential for medical researchers and scientists to find treatments that will work effectively against the new virus variants.