WASHINGTON — Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid seems tailor-made for combatting Covid-19 in prisons: It doesn’t require an intravenous infusion like other treatments. There are signs it could significantly reduce people’s ability to spread the virus. And it significantly cuts people’s chances of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19.
But the drug isn’t being made available to the vast majority of federal prisoners, according to STAT’s review of available data.