Growing evidence suggests that a diabetes drug and one used to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 can prevent the infection from developing into long COVID, a chronic condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In response to promising clinical-trial results, some physicians say that they will start prescribing the medications, but others are not convinced by the latest evidence. There is no universally agreed definition of long COVID, but it usually refers to symptoms that persist for more than three months after infection with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The most common symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive impairment. Observational studies have suggested that the antiviral Paxlovid1 and the diabetes drug metformin2 can reduce the risk of some long COVID symptoms. But until now, the drugs had not been tested in randomized, placebo-controlled trials in a broader group of participants ' the gold standard for evaluating treatment efficacy. The Paxlovid trial...
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