President Donald Trump previously accused the Food and Drug Administration of hindering the release of vaccines, drugs, and therapies for the treatment of Covid-19. Later, on the Republican National Convention’s eve, Trump came up with launching another campaign to win another round of presidential elections and extend his term in the White House.
The new announcement made on Sunday, 23rd August 2020, by FDA, was about offering an emergency plasma treatment to the COVID-19 affected patients. This new technique aims to use blood plasma that is antibiotic-rich, coming from the people already recovered from the pandemic. It has been used in a large amount on 70,000+ people in the USA. Also, according to Trump, death rates might reduce by 35% with this treatment.
On a press release, Trump stated that this is what he has been trying to reach for a long time and is happily making a significant announcement to get the victory over COVID-19 and save millions of lives. He then added that this new treatment procedure is a highly influential therapy, and appealed the Americans to donate plasma is they have recovered from the pandemic virus, Covid-19.
How effectively does this plasma treatment be?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved the new plasma treatment, but only for the severe cases of illness or the ones taking the clinical trials. They mentioned that this process of transfusion of plasma would be helpful in the treatment.
Presently, the FDA only approved for emergency authorization usage and not the common usage and full approval. They further stated that according to the researches, plasma treatment could reduce the mortality rate and improve the health of the patients if used within three days of getting hospitalized; however, to prove its efficiency and effectiveness, it requires some trials. FDA also mentioned that concluding considering it safe was after the trails on around 20,000 patients and reviewing the results
FDA then added that the patients under 80 years of age who did not require a respirator, received the plasma with a higher level of antibodies, and they delivered successful results with benefiting from the treatment. These patients exhibited a survival rate of 35% more than those receiving lower antibody carrying plasma.Â
FDA concluded with the fact that this treatment and procedure are sound entirely safe, and the FDA itself is highly comfortable with the same. The Center for Biological Evaluation and Research unit’s director, Mr. Peter Marks, added that there are no signs of safety signals and that the treatment is effective and comforting.
Experts’ reactions on the latest announcement:
The American Infectious Diseases Society stated that even though there are positive results of plasma treatment over some patients of Covid-19, there is still a lack of controlled trial data that is a must for a better understanding and checking the effectiveness of the procedure.
Meanwhile, many of the experts, including a member of the Coronavirus task force of White House, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, expressed their interest in the robust research reservations!
George Washington University’s medicine professor, Jonathan Reiner, considered this to be a political stunt, and he also added that the plasma transfusion might have exhibited some positive results. Still, the exact data for better reviewing and efficiency checking must be there too.
Previously, in early August 2020, the WHO also stated that recovering with plasma treatment from COVID-19 might be available soon after the experimental trials. Still, there must be safe and ethical measures followed for the procedure’s preparation and usage.
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