After testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that he has joined a growing group of people experiencing a Paxlovid rebound, following treatment with Pfizer’s antiviral. Fauci, 81, said that when he first tested positive two weeks ago, he had very minimal symptoms. However, when he began to feel worse, “given [his] age,” he was prescribed Paxlovid.
Other than fatigue and a bit of congestion, Fauci reported that he felt “really quite well,” and after his five-day course of Paxlovid, he tested negative with a rapid test. However, after testing negative for three consecutive days, Fauci said he decided to take one more test out of precaution and subsequently found himself positive again on the fourth day.
“It was sort of what people are referring to as a Paxlovid rebound,” Fauci said during a remote interview with the Foreign Policy Global Health Forum on Tuesday. Over the course of the next day, he began to feel “really poorly,” and “much worse than in the first go around,” he added.