By Sarah Jacoby; Today.com
Like many Americans, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 last month. But, following his infection, Biden experienced something a little less common: Paxlovid rebound.
Biden initially tested positive on July 21, according to a statement from his physician. He received the antiviral medication Paxlovid, which can help prevent severe COVID-19 disease in people with underlying risk factors for more serious symptoms. Biden completed his five-day course of Paxlovid and tested negative on July 26.
But a few days later, on July 30, he tested positive again on an antigen test — and went back into isolation. Initially, Biden reported that his symptoms hadn't come back. But this week the president is "experiencing a bit of a return of a loose cough," his physician wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
The decision to go back into isolation after rebounding was a good one, Dr. Taison Bell, assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of infectious diseases and international health and pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, told TODAY. "But it just demonstrates how difficult it is to really know exactly what to do in all these circumstances," he said.
As if COVID-19 isolation protocols weren't confusing enough, a rebound can make them even tougher to navigate.
What is Paxlovid rebound?
It's not entirely clear why some people develop a COVID-19 rebound after taking antiviral medications like Paxlovid and Lagevrio. These drugs work by suppressing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. So one theory is that the five-day course simply isn't long enough and leaves enough virus in people's bodies to reemerge as a rebound, NBC News explained.
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