Expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday recommended authorization of the first coronavirus pill to prevent high-risk people from developing severe illness in a divided vote that reflects the complicated mix of benefits and risks of a new and easy mode of treatment.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer requested emergency authorization Tuesday for its five-day antiviral pill regimen, Paxlovid, making it the second easy-to-take treatment aimed at keeping newly infected people out of the hospital to go before the Food and Drug Administration.