Indiana doctor explains Biden’s bout with COVID ‘rebound’

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – First the test was positive, then it came back negative, and now the results are positive once again.

This is what doctors are referring to as a COVI-19 rebound.

“A rebound case means someone who is still in their current infection,” Dr. Christopher Doehring, vice president of medical affairs at Franciscan Health, told News 8. “Their testing can become negative especially if they’ve been treated with Paxlovid, but their test returns to being positive after they’ve stopped taking the medicine, very much similar to what President (Joe) Biden experienced. That’s in contrast to a reinfection that happens within weeks or even a month or two of a past infection, which would be two separate infections in that scenario.”

Doehring says Paxlovid suppresses the load of the virus to a degree that it becomes undetectable. However, once the medication is out of your system, sometimes the infection re-emerges. This happens when your body hasn’t built up enough of its own immunity to suppress the virus and is still relying on the Paxlovid.

Doehring says these events are uncommon. He estimates around 10% of COVID-infected patients taking Paxlovid have experienced a rebound case.