Infusing blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 into sick patients looks good on paper. But studies of the treatment haven't found benefits.
More than 250,000 courses of convalescent plasma have been administered to Americans to help prevent severe consequences from COVID-19. Yet, health care professionals urgently need a steady, reliable supply of plasma.
One thing that has improved a lot over the course of the pandemic is treatment of seriously ill COVID-19 patients in intensive care units. Here's one man's success story.
“I knew that this was a novel virus. I knew that we didn't have any tried-and-true effective treatments for it,” she said. “And here I was full-blown, and I had it.”
The Food and Drug Administration's chief said Sunday the therapy reduces deaths among COVID-19 patients by 35%. On Monday he apologized, acknowledging that statistic greatly exaggerates any benefit.
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar about the Food and Drug Administration allowing the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19.
President Trump announced on Sunday that the FDA granted emergency use authorization to treat COVID-19 patients with plasma from people who have recovered from the virus, based on "promising" results.
The president criticized the FDA this week for not giving emergency use approval to an experimental treatment for COVID-19. Scientists argue that the therapy still lacks sufficient evidence.
