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Pfizer told the pharmacies and clinics that will dispense Paxlovid, in a letter dated Wednesday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, that a five-day course of the antiviral will list for $1,390. The U.S. government had paid $529. Health plans will probably pay much less than the list price for the pills, and most patients will have a small or no out-of-pocket cost because Pfizer is expected to offer price discounts and help patients with their out-of-pocket charges. (Rockoff and Hopkins, 19/18)

The U.S. government has halted some efforts to collect an estimated $62 billion in past-due pandemic loans made to small businesses, concluding that aggressive attempts to recover the money — a portion of which may have been lost to fraud — could cost more than simply writing off the debt. The Small Business Administration, which manages the program, adopted the policy in April, prompting the agency’s watchdogs to compute the potential losses in a September report that found the practice “risks” violating federal law. The internal directive since then has sparked an outcry on Capitol Hill, where House Republicans on Wednesday opened an investigation and joined their Senate GOP counterparts in demanding documents from the SBA. (Romm, 10/18)

A new study from Israel ties COVID-19 infection to an increased risk of a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks, while mRNA vaccination was linked to a decreased risk of the rare but serious autoimmune disease. The study was published today in Neurology. (Van Beusekom, 10/18)

People with HIV are at increased risk of being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19, according to new federal data. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chicago Department of Public Health followed adult residents in Chicago from their first reported infection from March 2020 through the end of May 2022, according to the report published Wednesday by the CDC. ... About 5% experienced reinfection among more than 453,000 Chicago residents who tested positive for the virus. (Kekatos, 10/189

It’s fall in the Northern Hemisphere, and the weather is getting cooler. Many people have cold-like symptoms, and some may have tested positive for Covid-19, influenza or the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). With winter on the way and viral infections increasing, a lot of people may wonder how long they will be contagious after infection and how long they should take precautions and avoid contact with others. (Hetter, 10/18)