Pfizer taps Pink, Michael Phelps and other celebrities in latest Covid campaign – Endpoints News

First, it was Martha Stew­art. Now, four more celebri­ties who are at high risk for de­vel­op­ing se­vere Covid-19 symp­toms are get­ting in on Pfiz­er’s Covid-re­lat­ed ad cam­paigns in the new year.

The ad, ti­tled “A Whole Dif­fer­ent Ball Game,” urges view­ers to know their risk fac­tors, make a plan and if they test pos­i­tive, seek an oral treat­ment.

“If this were the re­al Covid-19, I would be in re­al trou­ble be­cause I have asth­ma,” singer-song­writer Pink says as she holds a red spiky ball made to look like the nov­el coro­n­avirus. “And I have de­pres­sion,” re­tired Olympic swim­mer Michael Phelps says as he catch­es and toss­es the ball.

For mu­si­cian and film­mak­er Quest­love, be­ing over­weight puts him at high risk, and for ac­tress Jean Smart, it’s di­a­betes.

“In fact, you can be one of al­most 200 mil­lion Amer­i­cans with a high risk fac­tor that makes Covid even riski­er,” Pink says.

While the cam­paign is un­brand­ed, the com­mer­cial en­cour­ages pa­tients to as­sess their risks at the web­site know­plan­go.com, and “ask your doc­tor about treat­ment op­tions that may help you.” That in­cludes Pfiz­er’s an­tivi­ral Paxlovid, which raked in more than $9.5 bil­lion in the first half of 2022.

The web­site al­so ad­vis­es stay­ing up to date on vac­cines, even as the US strug­gles with slow up­take. Just 15.3% of Amer­i­cans have rolled up their sleeves for an up­dat­ed boost­er, ac­cord­ing to the CDC’s lat­est da­ta. About 32.5 mil­lion Amer­i­cans have re­ceived Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech’s bi­va­lent boost­er.

“Stay­ing up to date on boost­ers re­mains one of the best de­fens­es against COVID-19, and as we en­ter the fourth year of COVID-19 in­fec­tions in the U.S., it is crit­i­cal that we find new and in­no­v­a­tive ways to con­tin­ue ed­u­cat­ing au­di­ences on this top­ic,” Pfiz­er said in an email to End­points News on Tues­day. “Ad­di­tion­al­ly, clin­i­cal da­ta in­di­cates that au­tho­rized pre­scrip­tion oral treat­ment may help to re­duce ill­ness sever­i­ty, hos­pi­tal­iza­tion rates and deaths among pa­tients at high risk of de­vel­op­ing se­vere COVID-19. These cam­paigns serve these pub­lic health goals.”

Just last month, the US gov­ern­ment inked a near­ly $2 bil­lion deal for 3.7 mil­lion more treat­ment cours­es of Pfiz­er’s Paxlovid, planned for de­liv­ery by ear­ly 2023.

The lat­est cam­paign aired just a cou­ple weeks af­ter Pfiz­er and BioN­Tech un­veiled a com­mer­cial pro­mot­ing up­dat­ed boost­er shots fea­tur­ing Stew­art.

“You know that un­wel­come guest every­one wish­es would just leave al­ready? That’s Covid-19,” Stew­art says as she sharp­ens a long sword in the kitchen. That cam­paign is al­so un­brand­ed, though Stew­art rolls up her sleeve to in­di­cate that she got an up­dat­ed boost­er that pro­tects against the Omi­cron vari­ant.