This was presented through White House press officer Kayleigh McEnany as a “great advance in healing.” But is it really?
Before President Donald Trump’s press conference at 6:00 p.m. Today’s ET, McEnany tweeted:
Well, for the umpteenth time, it’s the Covid-19 coronavirus and not the “Chinese virus.” Legitimate public or clinical health experts do not call it the “Chinese virus.”
Anyway, “a primary healing breakthrough” sounds like a pretty stimulating trick. After all, you don’t tend to say you’ve made a breakthrough in the kitchen and come back with a peanut butter and jam sandwich. It would look more like a “big what-that-devil-you-has-past-all-this-in-the-kitchen”.
So what was this breakthrough in Covid-19 coronavirus? Has anyone discovered a new remedy that works for Covid-19 coronavirus infections? Has a clinical experiment shown unexpected new positive results? Are lawyers the answer to all the misfortunes in the world after all? No. And not bad luck.
Instead, the “advance,” announced today through Trump at a press conference, is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) takes into account an Emergency Use Authorization (U.S.) for convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19. Oh, that’s what I’m talking about.
Trump described the recovery as a “powerful therapy” that will “save countless lives.” He also claimed that this had been made imaginable through Operation Warp Speed. The following NBC Nightly News tweet shows the press conference component:
It’s no secret that the FDA has been contemplating a U.S. for convalescent plasma for some time and that Trump has driven them to do so. Plasma is the liquid component of your blood. Convalescence means recovering from an illness or procedure. In this case, convalescent plasma refers to the liquid component of a user’s blood that has recovered from Covid-19. The concept is that this plasma may include antibodies that can affect others who are lately battling the disease.
This is not a complex and absolutely new therapy. It collects blood from others who have had Covid-19, separates the liquid component from the blood comprising antibodies opposed to coronavirus 2 from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV2), and then injects some form of this antibody plasma into a patient with covid-19 gravitant. The antibodies would then be to fight the virus or at least retain the virus until the patient can generate antibodies on its own.
There is evidence that convalescent plasma has helped treat other infectious diseases such as influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola. But the evidence is not falsified or well documented. Researchers began examining convalescent plasma as a remedy for severe Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic, as there were few other characteristics. This led to the publication of several studies, which added the mayn ongoing extended access to convalescent plasma for the treatment of patients with the COVID-19 program. Although the federal government helped fund these studies, it is unclear what role Operation Warp Speed played in accelerating the investigation.
Several organizations have already encouraged Covid-19 survivors to donate their plasma with these studies and treatments. For example, the National Basketball Association (NBA) issued the following public service announcement with Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics:
It’s smart, in fact, it encourages more donations, which lately are rare.
And the FDA also asked others to make a donation, as this PSA showed with FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn:
According to the FDA website, you must have had a previous diagnosis of Covid-19 that was shown through a real lab check and have not had symptoms for at least 14 days prior to donation. The site provides the following links to identify where to also donate your blood:
Federal officials have hesitated to factor the U.S. into convalescent plasma, as the evidence to date is not very strong. Studies to date have had major limitations. For example, a randomized clinical trial at seven medical centers in Wuhan, China, from February 14 to April 1, 2020, was not blind and did not have enough patients. The researchers completed the study because Covid-19 instances had decreased in Wuhan. A jama publication described how others with severe Covid-19 who gained convalescent plasma were 34% more likely than those who did not get the remedy to improve on the 28th. Although the study found that those who gained a mortality rate (16% vs 24%) compared to those who had no remedy (the control group). Researchers reported two transfusion-related events, adding a serious event.
Another exam published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings was protective research into the first 20,000 patients who obtained plasma under the Mayo Clinic program between April 3 and June 2, 2020. This test was also limited because there was no arm. Researchers discovered 146 serious adverse occasions (less than 1% of patients) and 63 deaths. The researchers decided that thirteen of the deaths may have been similar to convalescence plasma treatment.
Then there is the case-examination of 39 consecutive patients who were at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York from March 24 to April 8, 2020. The study team downloaded the effects of this test as a prepress on medRxiv. This means that the test has not yet been peer-reviewed. So take all the discoveries with a full salt pillowcase. For the examination, the team searched the hospital’s electronic physical fitness records for 156 patients who had Covid-19 but had not earned convalescent plasma to serve as s. Compared to the group, a percentage decrease from those who gained convalescent plasma (13% vs. 24%) ended up dying (as of May 1, 2020). Again, this study has not yet been published in a peer review. and it was not a randomized clinical trial.
Lack of false evidence doesn’t mean convalescence plasma can’t be a useful therapy. Will it be a “powerful therapy” that will save “countless lives”? It’s not very transparent at the moment. In fact, the U.S. is not a “great healing breakthrough.” This is more a replacement in the prestige of the availability of remedies. This makes it less difficult for doctors to verify the remedy and for patients to obtain it. It can also be a double-edged weapon in some respects. It would possibly be more difficult to recruit for formal clinical trials because patients would possibly only need to obtain a remedy without being part of a clinical trial. This also allows misuse of the remedy.
In fact, it is too early to know the effect of this treatment. This is unlikely to replace many of the realities of the pandemic. The virus still spreads to États-Unis.Il is still life-threatening. This can still leave it to others with persistent symptoms. Social estrangement will continue to be necessary.
Convalescent plasma is promising for others with severe Covid-19. But is today’s announcement a breakthrough in healing? Not yet. So stay tuned.
I am a writer, journalist, teacher, system modeler, expert in PC and virtual fitness, bar eater and entrepreneur, not in that order. I’m right there.
I am a writer, journalist, teacher, system modeler, expert in pc and virtual fitness, eat lawyers and entrepreneur, not at all times in that order. Currently, I am Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York School of Public Health (CUNY), Executive Director of PHICOR (@PHICORteam), Professor courtesy at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and Founder and Executive Director of Symsilico. The above positions are Executive Director of the Global Center for Obesity Prevention (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University, Associate Professor of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Associate Professor of Biomedical Medicine and Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Senior Manager at Quintiles Transnational, Biotechnology Equity Research at Securities and co-founder of a biotechnology/bioinformatics company. My paintings have come with upcoming approaches, models and PC equipment to help fitness and fitness decision makers on every continent (except Antarctica) and have received support from a wide variety of sponsors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NIH, AHRQ, CDC, UNICEF, USAID and the Global Fund. I have written more than two hundred clinical publications and 3 books. Follow me on Twitter (@bruce_y_lee) but don’t ask me if I know martial arts.