2026-04-27 from ctvnews.ca

An antiviral drug that was celebrated as a potentially life-saving intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic may not actually reduce hospital admissions or death among vaccinated patients but it could still help them recover quicker, a new study has found.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week and is based on two clinical trials - one in Canada and another in the United Kingdom.

In total, 4,200 people (716 in Canada and 3,516 in the U.K.) were involved in the trials. They ranged in age and some had health conditions or weakened immune systems. All, however, tested positive for the virus and experienced symptoms for five days or less.

Almost everyone who took part in the trials (98 per cent) got at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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