The hope would be that a short course of antivirals (eg Paxlovid) would resolve the symptoms associated with long Covid.
Sadly, this is unlikely to be the case for most patients.
There could be a small subset that would benefit, but unlikely to be a significant solution to the problem.
We suspect that a subset of #longCOVID patients have viral reservoirs. The reason we use a 15-day trx (not a 5-day used for acute infection) is to allow the drug to eliminate the virus that is causing chronic infection and to remove such reservoirs. (4/)
nature.com/articles/s4159…
This paper below is the basis of our research looking into intestinal viral protein/antigen persistence with long Covid. Important to differentiate from active viral replication.
Zollner, Andreas, et al. "Postacute COVID-19 is Characterized by Gut Viral Antigen Persistence in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases." Gastroenterology (2022).
The case against viral persistence in Long Covid