Here's the latest news from the pandemic.

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Merck's Covid pill is ushering fresh optimism about the course of this seemingly endless pandemic. Early studies show the drug has the potential to cut the rate of hospitalization and death by around 50% in mild to moderate Covid patients.

It's exactly the type of tool doctors need to keep patients from getting severely ill and clogging up emergency rooms. And it could become the first drug approved for Covid that doesn't require a patient to visit a hospital or infusion center, potentially saving the health-care system millions of dollars.

That's all reason to celebrate, should Merck succeed in getting the nod from regulators. But the emergence of such a treatment shouldn't be cause for complacency when it comes to the most effective tool to end this pandemic: vaccines. Thus far, the anti-vaccine movement has appeared to embrace drugs to treat Covid over getting the very shots that would stop people from contracting the virus in the first place.

Merck's antiviral pill molnupiravir.

Merck

The worst example of that is ivermectin, a horse deworming agent that's gained underground popularity as a Covid treatment despite research showing it's not effective and possibly even harmful for patients. If Merck's new drug, molnupiravir, is being viewed as a solution for those who refuse to vaccinate, the Covid virus will continue to persist. That's a problem for children who are too young to get shots yet or those who aren't eligible for a vaccine. And if the virus continues to circulate, new mutations have the potential to emerge, potentially rendering vaccines less effective than they already are.

Antivirals are a challenging class of drugs to develop. Merck, along with partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said the incidence of drug-related adverse events was similar in the group that took molnupiravir and the one that took the placebo. Those rates were 12% and 11%, respectively. The details of that side-effect data will be key to figuring out how widely the drug can be deployed.

It's no question molnupiravir could be an answer for many patients, assuming it's safe and regulators give it the green light. But the work being done by public health officials to promote vaccines is still critical given that those drugs have the potential to truly stop Covid in its tracks.—Cynthia Koons

More Than 6.3 Billion Shots Given

Enough doses have now been administered to fully vaccinate 41% of the global population—but the distribution has been lopsided. Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 20 times faster than those with the lowest. See the details here.

Bloomberg

Bye to Toddler Stars of Pandemic Office Zoom

Remote-work rules after Covid will likely include child-care provisions.

Carnival Cruise Passengers Partying Harder

Cruises are getting boozier in the pandemic era, boosting onboard sales.

Covid Pill Offers Hope for Developing World

Unitaid health agency seeking to secure supplies of the antiviral drug.

Indonesia Eyes 10,000-Strong Sports Event

It will be a test of the country's strategy of living with the coronavirus.

California: Vaccination for School Attendance

The implementation is expected in the summer of 2022 for older kids.

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