“COVID rebound,” in which evidence of the illness disappears and then returns days or weeks later, is surprisingly common—whether or not patients are given the antiviral Paxlovid.
The results, reported on February 22 in Clinical Infectious Diseases by scientists at Scripps Research and the digital health company eMed, are a preliminary readout from an ongoing observational study of people who order SARS-CoV-2 antigen test kits online. The researchers found that in an initial group of 170 eMed Test-to-Treat kit users, the disappearance and then return of evidence of the virus on antigen tests and in self-reported COVID-19 symptoms occurred in 9.3% and 7.0% of patients who opted not to take antiviral treatment, and in 14.2% and 18.9% of those who opted for Paxlovid.
