Can Paxlovid help people with Long COVID? A major trial is underway.

If you're one of the many people living with the exhaustion, brain fog, and other relentless symptoms of Long COVID, you know the desperate search for something that helps. Now, researchers are testing whether the antiviral Paxlovid, used to treat early COVID-19, might also work for the long-haul version of the illness. They've enrolled nearly 1,000 people with Long COVID in a major, carefully designed trial to see if different lengths of Paxlovid treatment can improve specific symptom clusters, including problems with thinking, dizziness, and severe fatigue after exertion. This is a serious scientific effort to find a treatment, but it's important to know this is a Phase 2 trial—its main job is to see if Paxlovid shows enough promise to justify a larger, final-stage study. We don't have the results yet, and we don't know if the drug will work for these long-term symptoms or if it will be safe for this new use. The trial is happening, and that in itself is significant progress for a condition with few options.