Over the weekend, the US FDA gave emergency approval for expanded use of antibody rich blood plasma to be used for coronavirus patients, according to The New York Times.
“Convalescent plasma therapy involves extracting blood from people who have been infected with the coronavirus, and removing components including red and white blood cells and platelets to leave behind a straw-colored liquid which contains antibodies. It is hoped that injecting this liquid into COVID-19 patients could help them recover,” says Newsweek.
President Trump has said it’s a “powerful therapy.”
Health Secretary Alex Azar even said, as quoted by Newsweek, “We saw about a 35 percent better survival in the patients who benefited most from the treatment, which were patients under 80 who were not on artificial respiration.”
Former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb has also said it could be effective.
“I think that this could be beneficial. It might be weakly beneficial,” Gottlieb said on CNBC. “It doesn’t look like a home run, but right now we’re looking for singles and doubles. There aren’t really going to be any home runs on the horizon until we can get the other therapeutic antibodies on the market and hopefully eventually vaccines and better therapeutics.”
However, the news is being blasted by scientists.
The Journal of the American Medical Association for example said, “People who’ve had COVID19 develop anti-SARSCoV2 antibodies in plasma, the yellow liquid portion of blood. This convalescent plasma can be transfused into COVID19 patients, but the effectiveness of the treatment hasn’t yet been shown in RCTs [randomized control trials].”
If it works, it could be great news for the 23.4 million people now infected around the world.
In the U.S., cases are now up to 5.7 million. In Brazil, it’s up to 3.6 million. In India, 3.1 million. In Russia, nearly 960,000, and in South Africa, 609,773.
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