(John Ransom, Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris’s course of treatment in suffering from asymptomatic COVID is being questioned by health experts who say the antiviral medication she’s taking is unnecessary for a case that is anything less than severe.
Surprised to learn that Kamala Harris who is asymptomatic, healthy, and quadruple vaccinated is getting Paxlovid, a drug reserved for high-risk patients per the FDA label.
— Marty Makary MD, MPH (@MartyMakary) April 27, 2022
“Asymptomatic covid and no medical issues isn’t an indication for Paxlovid,” tweeted former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams. “And this same media wanted minute by minute updates and speculated endlessly about Trumps underlying health status based upon the treatments he was or wasn’t getting.”
Some criticized the special treatment for an emergency-use drug that is not fully available to all consumers on the US market, although in a conveniently timed announcement, the administration said this week that it planned to make it more available.
Others interpreted Harris’s unorthodox medical treatment as an indication that the quadruple-vaxxed vice president might actually be experiencing more alarming COVID symptoms than had been reported.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tried to blame the treatment on Harris’s doctor.
When asked why Harris was taking the antiviral treatment that was only recommended by the White House is own expert, Ashish Jha, in severe cases of the disease, Psaki deferred to Harris.
“Well, he also said … that you should consult with your doctor, and she consulted with her doctor,” Psaki said, according to the New York Post.
Harris is 57 years old and so she’s technically a member of a high risk group, although it’s unclear that that definition would count in a case that’s asymptomatic.
“Any high risk person should have it,” Leana Wen, emergency physician and professor at George Washington University, told Axios.
“Timing really matters,” Wen added. “The earlier the better. People should not wait until they develop symptoms to start taking it.”
So despite being vaccinated and boosted, people still need to take an emergency authorized pill with a four month track record, even for cases where no symptoms are present.
Nonetheless, it fueled speculation that there may be some underlying condition that Harris has, about which the public has not been informed, that would put her at a more elevated risk.
Contacted for comment, Harris’s office has been mum except for saying that she consulted with her physician before starting a course of treatment, said Axios.
Harris contracted the disease while taking time off in California, but obviously she didn’t fly commercial.
Her illness comes shortly after a breakout swept through Washington, DC’s elite circles, affecting Democrat lawmakers disproportionately, which some claimed was the result of a super-spreader event, an April 2 dinner at the Gridiron Club.
COVID czar Anthony Fauci was among those in attendance at the event, which may have led him recently to cancel plans to appear at the upcoming White House Press Correspondents’ gala, citing a personal health assessment.
Earlier this week, Fauci decreed that the COVID-19 pandemic was officially over before quickly dialing back those remarks.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
