Trump Grants Emergency Authorization of Convalescent Plasma Treatment for COVID-19

President Donald Trump has approved an emergency authorization of convalescent plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients, calling it a "major breakthrough."

Trump said the Food and Drug Administration had issued an emergency use authorization for the convalescent plasma treatment.

Trump said on a report that the said treatment is a powerful therapy that transfuses very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients.

Trump said that based on science and data, the FDA had made an independent claim that the convalescent plasma treatment is safe and very effective.

The president then urged all COVID-19 recovered patients in the United States to donate their blood plasma.

How Does Convalescent Plasma Treatment Work?

The immune system generates antibodies when people have been exposed to COVID-19. The said antibodies fight the disease.

These antibody proteins are in the blood plasma, which is the liquid component of blood that suspends blood cells.

The convalescent plasma treatment is done by injecting it into another patient sick with COVID. The antibodies it contains can help fight the virus in an early infection until the patient's immune system generates its own antibodies.

Convalescent Plasma Treatment: Is It Safe and Effective?

Around 64,000 patients in the U.S. have been given the convalescent plasma treatment. It is classified as a century-old approach to treat flu and measles before vaccines.

It's a go-to technique that is being used when new diseases come along. History shows that it works against some, but not all infections.

However, there is no concrete evidence that it fights COVID-19 and, if it can, how it can best be utilized.

The FDA said, on announcing the emergency use of convalescent plasma treatment, that its benefits outweigh the known and potential risk of the product, adding that there are no adequate, approved, and available alternative treatments.

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that convalescent plasma treatment is possibly beneficial.

But the former FDA official dismissed Trump's suggestion of a deliberate slowdown.

"I firmly reject the idea they would slow-walk anything or accelerate anything based on any political consideration or any consideration other than what is best for the public health and a real sense of mission to patients," he said.

In Mayo Clinic's June data, it showed that convalescent plasma treatment is safe.

This was found after a transfusion in a group of 20,000 patients, including Black and Latino patients.

Another study released on Aug. 13 suggested that convalescent plasma treatment on patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms was associated with a lower likelihood of death.

However, the study is not yet peer-reviewed and has serious scientific limitations, which can interpret findings hard.

Besides, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, discouraged the FDA from issuing an emergency authorization on the said treatment.

Fauci cited concerns over weak data on the convalescent plasma treatment.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn started urging Americans sick with COVID-19 to donate plasma as early as April.

The federal government has already spent about $8 million on radio and online advertisements for the donation of plasma, even though government agencies have not fully endorsed it yet.

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