It may be time to rescind the "emergency use" provision of the pandemic.

An alarming study has come out about a treatment for Covid-19. It involves interrupting the virus ability to replicate. Not a bad idea, right? Except the way it is carried out actually induces a mutation. The concern of course is that viruses mutate all on their own. What happens to a virus induced to mutate that then mutates in a way to make it more virulent?

September 26, 2023

Out of research at the University of Minnesota

...Molnupiravir's antiviral activity (click here) stems from its ability to kill the virus by inducing mutations designed to take away its ability to replicate. As regulators weighed the risks and benefits of the drug during the emergency use approval process, they worried about whether the treatment could not only drive the arrival of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, but also trigger mutations in the cells of people who take the drug. Treatment guidelines recommend against using the drug in pregnant women unless no other options are available.

Authors of the Nature study described their findings in a January preprint, and other scientists have also raised concerns about whether the use of molnupiravir could trigger novel variants.

Still, with few oral treatment options available, several countries cleared molnupiravir for emergency use. Though the drug is thought to be less effective than Paxlovid, a recent study found that both drugs reduced COVID deaths and hospitalizations....

Is the global pandemic over?

With President Joe Biden formally declaring on May 11, 2023, (click here) the end to both the COVID-19 public health emergency and the national state of emergency, does that mean COVID is over?

The simple answer is no. COVID-19 is still a pandemic, and the virus continues to mutate into other variants, infecting people and in some cases, resulting in death.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still reporting more than 85,000 cases in the U.S. every week, resulting in hospitalizations and deaths in the thousands. The numbers continue to decline, but the virus is still a concern.

The end of the state of emergency means the U.S. government is scaling back its approach to COVID-19, which means prevention, care and treatment are about to become more expensive....

It just seems prudent to return to the standards used for testing and approving medications before the pandemic was declared. I think the "emergency use" is allowing risky technology, such as molnupiravir, to be approved for use without complete knowledge of any potential TO CAUSE HARM.