Received questionable medical advice from a PA at urgent care
Hi all, I’m looking for your thoughts on some medical advice I just received from a PA at an urgent care in California. I tested positive for Covid today, and I have moderate symptoms (congestion/pressure in my head and nose, coughing, tiredness), so I went to urgent care to be evaluated and request paxlovid.
The PA told me that I should not take paxlovid, even if I develop a fever, because I’m in my 20s and it’s only for old/seriously sick people.
She also said that I don’t even need to isolate or wear a mask, even while I’m testing positive and living in a household with an immunocompromised parent. She said that Covid has gotten weaker as it’s mutated, and I should just treat it like a normal cold and cough/sneeze into my elbow.
This is weird medical advice, right? I have a 24 year old friend and both she and her boyfriend had Covid last month, and he was prescribed Paxlovid and recovered faster - but when I told the PA this, she said that he never should have been prescribed paxlovid.
Also, I told a Yale PhD in my close circle about this and they said that her advice differs from Yale advice.
I’m going to continue to wear a mask around my family and isolate until I’m testing negative, even though the PA said that’s not necessary. Her medical advice was pretty questionable, right?
EDIT: Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies! I won’t return to this urgent care, and I left a review.
EDIT 2: I left a review (in response to their automatic feedback request email), and their Provider Relations Manager just called me and took an account of what happened, and they said that they’re opening an internal investigation into the provider. They also gave me her name, and I’ll be reporting her to the CA board of medicine. On top of that, they are ordering a prescription of Paxlovid for me! I don’t think I’ll take it necessarily, but I really appreciated that. Case closed!