West Side Story star Ariana DeBose has joined HBO’s Westworld in a recurring role, for the sci-fi series’ fourth season, the premium cable channel announced on Tuesday. She joins returning cast members Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Aaron Paul and Angela Sarafyan. Details of DeBose’s role have not been revealed. Westworld returns for its fourth season June 6 after a two-year hiatus…
Hulu has cancelled the comedy Dollface after two seasons, according to TVLine. The series starred Kat Dennings as Jules, a woman who, after being dumped by her longtime boyfriend, set out to rekindle the female friendships she left behind. Brenda Song, Esther Povitsky, and Shay Mitchell also starred. Luke Cook, Lilly Singh, Jayson Blair and Corinne Foxx joined the cast for season two…
A day after CBS’ renewal of all three shows from Dick Wolf‘s FBI franchise — FBI and spinoffs FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International — NBC announced on Tuesday that it has picked up Wolf’s Law & Order revival and Law & Order: Organized Crime for the 2022-23 season. They join Law & Order: SVU — which is in the second year of a three-season renewal — on the network’s lineup for next season. Law & Order ran on NBC from 1990-2010; Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson reprise their roles from the original run, and Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy and Odelya Halevi also star. Organized Crime, which brought Chris Meloni back to the Law & Order franchise a decade after departing SVU, will air its third season in 2022-23…
Starz has renewed its breakout freshman horror comedy Shining Vale, according to Deadline. The series follows Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear as Patricia “Pat” Phelps and her husband, Terry, a couple stuck in a rut professional and personally who move their whole family into an old home that turns out to be haunted. Mira Sorvino also stars along with Gus Birney and Dylan Gage.Shining Vale also features Judith Light and Sherilyn Fenn. Season one is currently streaming on the Starz app…
When it comes to being nude, Jesse Williams says it’s not big deal.
The actor, who currently stars in the Broadway play Take Me Out, appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen just hours after nude images of him from the play leaked online Monday, and said that he’s learned to be OK with being in the buff.
“It’s a body,” he said. “Once you see it, you realize it’s whatever, it’s a body. I just have to make it not that big of a deal.”
Although the internet had a field day commenting on the leaked photos, Second Stage Theater, which produces Take Me Out, slammed the audience member responsible for the leak.
“Second Stage Theater has worked to ensure the privacy of the ‘Take Me Out’ company by creating a phone-free space with locked phone cases at all performances. We are appalled that this policy has been violated and unauthorized footage of our acting company has been posted,” they wrote in an Instagram post. “It is deeply unfortunate that one audience member chose to disrespect the production, their fellow audience members, and, most importantly, the cast in this manner.”
“Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” the post continued. “Posting it on the internet is a gross and unacceptable violation of trust between the actor and audience forged in the theater community. We are actively pursuing takedown requests and ask that no one participates in the distribution of these images. Second Stage is also adding additional staff at the theater to enforce the policy.”
(NEW YORK) — For snack purists, original Goldfish may be the perfect poppable bite, but for those in search of something bolder than cheddar or parmesan, there’s a new line that adds a cult-favorite flavor to the mix.
Goldfish hooked up with Old Bay to create a limited-time offering made with the zesty, bold taste of Old Bay.
Fans of the Baltimore-based seafood seasoning brand are notoriously passionate about the blend of 18 herbs and spices used on everything from crab boils to a limited-time hot sauce that sold out within an hour of release in 2020.
“The Old Bay and Goldfish teams knew they had to join forces to deliver a delicious, one-of-a-kind snacking for fans and foodies, alike,” a representative for the brand said in a statement.
The popular spice blends black pepper, paprika, celery salt and red pepper flakes to complement the classic taste of Goldfish.
The new Goldfish will roll out nationwide with a limited quantity available on the McCormick website in early May.
Each 6.6-ounce bag will be sold for $2.79 and can be found at a nearby location using the Pepperidge Farm website.
This also marks the second limited-time offer licensed ingredient partnership with McCormick. The popular Goldfish Frank’s RedHot ranked at the time as the fastest-selling launch of summer 2021.
(NEW YORK) — As the nation looks ahead to a possible post-Roe v. Wade world in which abortion is banned in multiple states, medical experts warn there could be wide-ranging health and financial complications for women.
As soon as next month, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority of justices is poised to overturn abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade, according to a draft opinion leaked to Politico.
If Roe is overturned, nearly half of the nation’s 50 states are prepared to ban or heavily restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
One of the most immediate impacts on women’s health would be maternal health, given that the United States already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to Dr. Ana Langer, director of the Women and Health Initiative and a professor of public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
According to Langer, for some women, “simply continuing a pregnancy is more risky than having a safe abortion.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 700 women die each year due to pregnancy or delivery complications within the first year after giving birth in the U.S., which continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations.
Black women in the U.S. die of maternal causes at nearly three times the rate of white women, according to the CDC.
The disproportionate rate at which women of color are impacted by pregnancy complications is one reason abortion rights advocates say abortion bans disproportionately impact that population, many of whom are already impacted more greatly by poverty, lack of health care access and racism in the health care system.
“The same folks that are impacted by inequities in maternal health outcomes — Black women, indigenous folks, LGBTQ communities, young people, those living on low incomes — are the same ones that are going to be deeply impacted and more brutally enacted by restricting access to abortion care,” said Dr. Jamila Perritt, a board-certified OBGYN in Washington, D.C., and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health. “It’s a double hit.”
In 2018, the most recent data available, two people in the U.S. died due to abortion-related deaths, and both deaths were related to legal abortion, according to the CDC.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) calls abortion “an essential component of women’s health care.”
In instances of pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, placental abruption, placenta previa and cardiac conditions, abortion can often be the only measure to save the mother’s health, according to ACOG.
“There can be things that develop during a pregnancy that can be dangerous, and it can be dangerous for them to continue those pregnancies,” said Dr. Krishna Upadhya, vice president of quality care and health equity at Planned Parenthood. “Not having access to abortion means they will have to continue those pregnancies, no matter the consequences.”
Abortion is a common medical procedure that can be similar to the care a woman gets when she has had a miscarriage, according to Upadhya. She said limiting or banning access to abortion care could also complicate miscarriage care in legal and medical ways.
“When we ban abortion, that also means we prevent or we reduce the opportunities for doctors to know how to provide this care, and then that puts at risk people who need related care,” said Upadhya, adding, “I’m also concerned that people who experience a miscarriage or other pregnancy complication could be questioned about their pregnancy outcome with potential legal implications and that’s a whole other unnecessary problem that people could face as a result of overturning Roe.”
Medical experts including Upadhya and Langer say they also worry what the overturning of federal abortion rights by the Supreme Court could do for other aspects of women’s reproductive and overall health.
For many women, access to abortion care also means access to overall health care like well-woman exams, prenatal care, contraceptive care, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, Pap smears and screenings for breast and cervical cancers. At Planned Parenthood, for example, abortion care accounts for just 3% of the services they provide, according to the organization’s 2019 annual report.
“Planned Parenthood’s motto is care no matter what, so we provide a full range of sexual and reproductive health care,” said Upadhya. “We are doing everything we can to provide all of that care because we know people need that care.”
Another point of concern for women’s health advocates is what the fall of Roe v. Wade could mean for the future of birth control access.
Based on the leaked draft opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, it’s not a far leap to imagine the Supreme Court taking on contraception, according to Kate Shaw, an ABC News contributor and constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law.
“A lot of the logic in this opinion suggests that other Supreme Court rulings are quite vulnerable to being revisited and possibly overturned by this Supreme Court that seems really emboldened to torch longstanding precedents because there are the votes to do it,” said Shaw, citing one of the cases as Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it illegal to use birth control devices or to advise about their use.
Experts say in addition to the immediate health complications for women, restricting access to abortion care has also been shown to have socioeconomic impacts on women, which can trickle down to, again, impact their health.
One frequently-cited study, The Turnaway Study, followed nearly 1,000 women who sought abortions in 21 states. The five-year study concluded that, “receiving an abortion does not harm the health and wellbeing of women, but in fact, being denied an abortion results in worse financial, health and family outcomes.”
Specifically, the study — led by researchers at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), based at the University of California San Francisco — found that women who were denied abortions were at nearly four times greater odds of a household income below the federal poverty line; had three times greater odds of being unemployed; had an increased likelihood of not being able to cover basic necessities like food and housing; and were more likely to stay with violent partners, putting themselves and their children at risk, according to the study brief.
The study also found women who were denied abortions were more likely to face greater mental health struggles and were less likely to complete advanced degrees.
“When we put restrictive laws in place like this, that ignore a person as a whole and ignore all of the complex decisions that go into deciding to become pregnant and parent,” said Dr. Jennifer Conti, a California-based OBGYN and abortion care provider. “We create dangerous situations where they have to choose between continuing a pregnancy and sometimes worsening their own medical conditions or worsening their own financial, economic decisions.”
In remarks Wednesday at a U.S. Senate hearing, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described how access to abortion can change the course of not only a woman’s life, but society’s circumstances, too.
“Roe v. Wade and access to reproductive health care, including abortion, helped lead to increased labor force participation,” she said. “It enabled many women to finish school. That increased their earning potential. It allowed women to plan and balance their families and careers, and research also shows that it had a favorable impact on the well being and earnings of children.”
If Roe v. Wade is overturned and, as a result, as many as two dozen states potentially ban or restrict abortion access, experts like Perritt, of Physicians for Reproductive Health, predict both the socioeconomic and health divides in this country will become even greater.
Already, in states like Texas, where abortion is heavily restricted, there are high rates of maternal and infant mortality and poverty, data shows.
And Texas’ ban on most abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, instituted last year, has not slowed the rate of abortions but rather has required people seeking abortion care to travel out of state, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin.
“We know what happens when you eliminate access to abortion at the state level. It means that people who have resources, people who have the ability, will travel to get care if they can, but most people cannot and will not,” said Perritt. “What we’ll be faced with is folks that are seeking care outside the formal medical system, and also folks who will be forced to carry pregnancies to term that they cannot and do not want to carry.”
(WASHINGTON) — In the wake of a bombshell leak last week of a Supreme Court draft opinion indicating the court’s conservative majority could soon overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Democrats on Wednesday will force a vote to advance a bill that would enshrine abortion rights into federal law.
The Women’s Health Protection Act would codify the Roe v. Wade ruling while also banning requirements some states have put into place related to abortion care, such as waiting periods and mandatory doctor visits before the procedure. But without the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP-led filibuster, the legislation is all but certain to fail in the Senate, sending Democrats scrambling for alternatives.
Still, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Wednesday’s vote is worth taking, to put Republicans on the record.
“There’ll be no more hiding. There’ll be no more distracting. No more obfuscating where every member in this chamber stands,” Schumer said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Senate Republicans will face a choice. Either vote to protect the rights of women to exercise freedom over their own bodies, or stand with the Supreme Court as 50 years of women’s rights are reduced to rubble before our very eyes.”
Schumer filed cloture on Monday on a motion to start debate on the Women’s Health Protection Act, setting the bill up for a procedural roll call vote on Wednesday. The bill cleared the House last year but already failed once to pass through the upper chamber in February, when Schumer failed to get the entire Democratic caucus on board, in a 46-48 vote. Democrats currently control 50 seats in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, serving as their tie-breaking vote — but 60 votes are needed to end debate on a piece of legislation, under the filibuster rule.
Not only are Democrats lacking the 60 votes needed to get past a GOP-led filibuster, but it’s also unclear whether they’ll have the full support of their caucus, since Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted with Republicans to block the measure earlier this year.
Republicans and Manchin have taken issue with how broad the Women’s Health Protection Act is, prompting Democrats to draft a modified version. Still, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — the sole Senate Republicans who support abortion rights — told reporters this week the bill still goes too far for them and that they would be voting “no.”
Collins and Murkowski have their own proposal to codify Roe called the Reproductive Choice Act, which they say would prohibit states from imposing an “undue burden” on the ability of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy pre-viability but allow states to keep other restrictions in place. However, 17 abortion-rights groups this week said would not protect the right to abortion.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told ABC News’ Trish Turner on Tuesday he’s been negotiating with Collins since last week to try to change the Reproductive Choice Act to find a way in federal law to protect access to abortion and contraception.
“We would like to codify the set of holdings beginning with Griswold up through the Whole Women’s Health case,” Kaine said of the bipartisan effort, referring to the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut upholding a constitutional marital right of privacy. But that measure, again, would need 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster.
Anticipating the Senate vote, abortion-rights activists spilled over from outside the Supreme Court to the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night, calling on lawmakers to protect abortion access nationwide.
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Lisa Cook to be the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
The vote was 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.
The confirmation comes as inflation rates continue to soar.
“As President Biden said today, addressing inflation remains a top priority of the Biden-Harris Administration, as we work to lower costs for hardworking families,” a White House official said. “It is important to have a fully-staffed Federal Reserve who can take on these challenges for the American people.”
Senate Republicans argued that Cook is not qualified for the position, especially when it comes to interest rate policy.
“Professor Cook has no proven expertise in monetary economics at all, much less fighting inflation,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the Senate floor earlier Tuesday.
Senate Democrats defended the nomination.
“We got more letters, I believe, in support of Lisa Cook than any nominee for the Fed,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee chair.
Cook earned her doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a joint professor at Michigan State University in economics and international relations,. The university lists her expertise as being in macroeconomics, development, innovation, economic history and international finance.
She also served as an adviser for the Federal Reserve, Banking, and Securities Regulators Agency Review Team on the Biden-Harris transition team and on the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2012.
(NEW YORK) — Of the numerous primary races held Tuesday, two resonated beyond state politics: the Republican gubernatorial primary in Nebraska and the 2nd Congressional District Republican primary in West Virginia — two races that together offered mixed messages about the power of an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
ABC News projected Jim Pillen, a businessman and member of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, as the winner in the Nebraska Republican gubernatorial primary, beating Trump’s endorsed candidate, wealthy businessman Charles Herbster, who has been accused of sexual assault by eight women — allegations he has denied.
The former president held a rally in Nebraska last week in support of Herbster, but almost all of Nebraska’s GOP establishment leaders, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, supported Pillen.
Across the country, in the rare matchup between two incumbent lawmakers in West Virginia, ABC News projected Trump-backed Rep. Alex Mooney as the winner.
Rep. David McKinley faced off against Mooney and three other challengers in the primary.
Trump put his weight behind Mooney, who has echoed the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election. McKinley, however, had the support of Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Manchin even released an ad denouncing Mooney and declaring his support for McKinley.
“Alex Mooney has proven he’s all about Alex Mooney. But West Virginians know David McKinley is all about us,” Manchin said in the ad.
The impact of congressional redistricting was also on full display in the race.
West Virginia lost one of its three House seats, and while both existing districts lean strongly Republican, there is one fewer seat for Republicans to hold onto, according to analysis from FiveThirtyEight.
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner told ABC News Live’s Diane Macedo on Monday that he didn’t think the Trump or Manchin endorsements would decide the race.
“He’s certainly very popular… I think people still are tuned in to what he has to say. But I really don’t think that’s going to be the decisive factor in this election,” Warner said of the former president. “Endorsements are important, but I think people really vote their conscience.”
As for Manchin’s endorsement, Warner was unsure of whether it would have “much play at all in this in this particular race,” which was also a test of one of President Joe Biden’s signature policies.
West Virginia is one of the nation’s poorest states, and McKinley is one of 13 Republicans who voted for Biden’s infrastructure bill that is expected to funnel $6 billion to the state. Mooney voted against it and won Trump’s endorsement when Biden signed the bill into law.
Greg Thomas, a Republican political consultant in the state who knows both candidates and once worked for McKinley, was of the belief that Trump’s support for Mooney could, in fact, be a tipping point.
“Trump’s personality isn’t something that we see a lot here in West Virginia. But his issues, these are West Virginia conservative issues and have been before Trump came along,” he told ABC News.
McKinley was also been hurt by Trump’s focus on his vote to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Unfounded claims about the 2020 election overshadow the two races, as both Herbster and Mooney have pushed the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Herbster attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, which preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mooney has also supported a Texas-led lawsuit seeking to throw out the election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin; and he objected to certifying the election results in Pennsylvania and Nevada.
(WASHINGTON) — Just weeks before the first midterm primary elections, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter reminding postsecondary institutions throughout the country of their legal requirement to distribute voter registration materials and provide voter education.
The 1998 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 began requiring colleges and universities to distribute voter registration information to all enrolled students, but according to Elizabeth Bennion, campus director of the American Democracy Project at Indiana University, South Bend — a university initiative that supports civic engagement for undergraduates — very few campuses were actually doing so.
“This is really a great time just to remind campuses of, you know, their responsibility under the Higher Education Act under federal law, as we head into the primaries and midterm elections,” said Clarissa Unger, co-founder and executive director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition — the largest nonpartisan coalition dedicated to increasing student voter participation.
Nonprofit coalitions like SLSV exist to serve and support universities as they fulfill their civic engagement requirement.
Katie Montgomery, director of government relations at Cuyahoga Community College, said the college prepares students for primaries by advertising a voter registration day at nearly 70 campus locations. Students are encouraged to have a “voting plan,” whether they are voting in-person, early, or on Election Day, she said.
“Once you register to vote and vote once, you’re more likely to be tagged as a likely voter in the massive databases that campaigns run and that nonprofits run,” said Adam Gismondi, director of impact at the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. “So then, you’re more likely to be contacted in future elections and reminded about your social responsibility to vote and you’re more likely to be asked for your vote by candidates. That actually perpetuates your involvement.”
The letter, issued by Michelle Asha Cooper, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Postsecondary Education, strongly encourages higher education institutions to make preparations over the next several months to fulfill their legal requirement this election cycle. It also includes a clarification that federal work-study funds may be used for voter registration activities on- or off-campus.
“One of the reasons why the Department of Education issuing this letter is so important is they have the reach of all the campuses, which is over 2,000 in the whole country,” Unger said, calling it a step toward greater “equity.”
A reminder like this has not been sent out to colleges and universities since 2013, said Unger, noting her coalition has been calling for one since 2016. Instead, she said, groups like Students Learn Students Vote, a nonpartisan network focused on “student voter participation,” have been helping to educate students while some institutions themselves do not.
Part of the problem has been ambiguity. While the Higher Education Act says colleges and universities have to make a “good faith effort” to educate students, according to Unger it doesn’t specify who at a university should be responsible for handling that role. Her coalition has been pushing the Department of Education to incentivize campuses to participate and give some form of recognition to campuses that already have voter education initiatives in place, she said.
Joy Fulkerson, director of Leadership and Civic Engagement at East Tennessee State University, said the letter helps provide “encouragement” to continue doing the work.
“We’re holding regular voter registration drives and looking at our data in terms of who’s voting and who’s not, and thinking about ways in which we can engage particular populations of students,” said Fulkerson. “We’ve been out tabling and visiting organization meetings or classrooms or residence halls to really make students know about the opportunity to participate in democracy.”
Youth voter participation is generally trending upward, with 50% of young people ages 18-29 voting in the 2020 presidential election. That was an 11-point increase from 2016’s 39% youth turnout and “likely one of the highest rates of youth electoral participation since the voting age was lowered to 18,” according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
It also estimated that voter participation among eligible young people more than doubled in midterm elections from 2014 to 2018 — increasing from 13% to 28%. Data on youth voter participation from the most recent midterm primaries is not yet available.
In addition to educating young voters, college-based voter education programs can also provide meaningful experiences for students who participate through work-study or as volunteers.
Sebastián Canales, a student advisory board member with the Campus Vote Project at Cleveland State University, which partners with the school’s Office of Civic Engagement, said being a democracy fellow with the organization has been “one of the most inspiring, motivating, life-changing experiences” that he’s had in college. As a fellow, he educates peers on registering to vote and navigating their ballots.
He cast his own first ballot in the 2016 presidential election alongside his dad, a first-time voter from Honduras who had just been granted citizenship. He said he and his father felt “lost” in the voting process, but they were able to get through it because they had each other’s support.
“My dad came from a country where voting was not necessarily encouraged, there was a lot of voter suppression, a lot of ballot-box stuffing and we would have conversations about that. He would say, ‘You know, we live in America where your voice should be heard,'” Canales said.
Dierks Bentley proved himself to be the biggest hockey fan when he managed to get his hands on the Stanley Cup — and brought it to his house.
The country star posted a video on Twitter of his kids Knox, Jordan and Evalyn coming home from school one day to find the giant silver cup sitting on the kitchen island in the family’s Nashville home.
It was a sight to behold for eight-year-old Knox, who was jumping up and down with excitement, barely able to get out the words “is this actually the Stanley Cup?,” as he screams with glee.
“Yesterday Knox came home from school thinking it was just another day… the surprise was a success! Not every day the Stanley Cup is in your house @NHL,” Dierks captions the epic moment.
Later in the video, each member of Dierks’ family answered the question “if you could eat anything out of the Stanley Cup, what would it be?” Jordan declared “ice cream,” and Knox and Evalyn both agreed, with Evalyn revealing that she would make a giant sundae with all the toppings.
“I think I’d put a big burrito in there,” Dierks shared, which was not met with approval from his children, who called the suggestion “disgusting.”
Dierks recently performed with Miranda Lambert at the NHL Stadium Series in Nashville, where the Nashville Predators faced off against Tampa Bay Lightning.
(NEW YORK) — Comedian Amy Schumer revealed Monday that she is taking the COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid as part of her overall care package as she recovers from the infection.
Paxlovid is a Food and Drug Administration-authorized treatment given as a series of pills over five days that can dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness. The U.S. government has purchased millions of doses in an effort to expand access to the drug for everyday Americans.
But in a series of social media posts, Schumer rhetorically asked if she is eligible for Paxlovid considering she is also taking the antidepressant, Lexapro. Although experts say it’s safe to take Lexapro and Paxlovid at the same time, they say Schumer’s posts raise awareness of an important issue: Paxlovid works, but it should be used with caution.
“Paxlovid is very important and has really been a game-changer as it’s the first oral antiviral that’s been authorized by our FDA and recommended by the CDC for high-risk patients with COVID 19 symptomatic infection…and has been shown to decrease hospitalization and death by close to 90%,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of Infectious Disease and Chief of Medicine at South Shore Health.
But the drug shouldn’t be used at the same time as many common prescription drugs, including some medications to treat mood disorders, heart conditions, high cholesterol, hypertension, migraines and many others. A full list of drugs that can react with Paxlovid can be found on the FDA Fact Sheet.
According to Ellerin, anyone taking a prescription medication should speak to their pharmacist or doctor before taking Paxlovid.
In some circumstances, people can stop taking their existing medication for five days while they take Paxlovid. In other cases, a doctor might be able to adjust drug doses, or recommend an alternative to Paxlovid, such as Remdesivir or a monoclonal antibody to help reduce the risk of severe COVD-19.
Paxlovid contains two drugs, Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir and experts warn that Ritonavir in particular can cause unsafe reactions with a long list of medications. Paxlovid can inhibit the ability to break down other medicines within the body, leading to an unsafe buildup of those medicines when recently taken.
Ellerin says people shouldn’t feel discouraged from seeking Paxlovid to ease COVID-19 symptoms, but anyone with questions should speak to a healthcare provider first.
“Your pharmacist can be really helpful,” said Ellerin. “If they say you have to be careful with these meds, then you want to speak to your provider.”
