Plasma should not be considered standard care for coronavirus, NIH panel says

[still_one]

Source: CNN

A National Institutes of Health panel said there's no evidence backing the use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients and that doctors should not treat it as a standard of care until more study has been done.

"There are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19," the panel of more than three dozen experts said in a statement posted on the NIH website Tuesday.
The statement, which was posted quietly, contradicts the Trump Administration's characterization of the treatment as "historic" and a "major advance" and directly refers to last week's emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"Prospective, well-controlled, adequately powered randomized trials are needed to determine whether convalescent plasma is effective and safe for the treatment of COVID-19. Members of the public and health care providers are encouraged to participate in these prospective clinical trials."

Last week, President Trump declared that the FDA's emergency use authorization was historic.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/health/coronavirus-plasma-nih-panel/index.html

[brewens]

1. The supply of convalescent plasma wouldn't be certain anyway. Only 38% of the population is

eligible to donate blood and rules for plasma are similar. They want to draw recovered patients that were actually sick and many of them have complications. You have to be healthy to donate. Some people can't handle donating. They pass out or get sick. Draw staff has to abort the donation if that happens. And some people will not be willing to donate.

If they found it was an excellent treatment for anyone seriously ill with COVID, there is no guarantee they could get plasma for them. I haven't heard how much it would take per patient either. if it's more than one unit, that makes it even more iffy.