September 13, 2021

One of the most peculiar things about COVID in America is that the powers that be—in politics, media, and medicine—have been hostile to the possibility of treating COVID. Since the virus emerged, people have been told there’s nothing that can be done to treat COVID until they’re near death at which point…there’s nothing that can be done to treat COVID. These same actors have hysterically opposed both the Hydroxychloroquine cocktail and Ivermectin. However, that resistance to early intervention may change now that Pfizer has a COVID-19 therapeutic antiviral protease inhibitor called PF-07321332.

PF-07321332 entered its phase two and three trials in August 2021. The treatment will be administered orally, although another version, called PF-07304814, is administered through an IV drip. According to Pfizer,

We believe that, if successful and authorized or approved, these investigational therapies could provide end-to-end treatment options for COVID-19 patients, including those exposed to the virus, those with diagnosed infections treated in the outpatient setting, and those hospitalized with moderate to severe infection.

Antiviral medications operate by interfering with a virus’s ability to replicate in the body. If the medication is given early enough in the illness’s progress, the infection will be weak. Protease inhibitors and other antivirals have been around for a long time for treating various illnesses, but they’ve only had off-label use in treating COVID cases. Pfizer’s version, however, would be specific to SARS-CoV-2 treatment.

Early in the pandemic, existing antivirals, especially protease inhibitors, intrigued scientists. That’s because they’d noticed that HIV patients already taking protease inhibitors for AIDS disease, if they caught COVID, mostly had surprisingly mild cases and unexpected survival rates. Also, in 2003, an earlier coronavirus—SARS-CoV-1—responded well to protease inhibitors. Pfizer explained, “In preclinical in vitro studies, many of the SARS-CoV-1 protease inhibitors identified in 2003 were found to also inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 protease.”

Even viewed in the best possible light, the mRNA vaccine, while a modern marvel, is a vastly impractical answer for an ever-changing virus. The Mu variant came from Columbia. The Delta variant came from India. More variants can be expected to come across our border, creating new, ever-changing complications and challenges. Unless America is going to vaccinate every single citizen and non-citizen within our borders and close off from the rest of the world for the next few decades, variants will not stop.

Because antiviral protease inhibitors disrupt viral replication creating a mild disease and because mild diseases will create antibodies in the main citizenry and rapid acceleration of herd immunity country-wide, protease inhibitors should be a topic of current interest and discussion.