What the ‘Emergency’ Blood-Plasma Debacle Reveals
On Sunday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an “emergency use authorization” for blood plasma to treat COVID-19. The decision was well within the agency’s remit but nevertheless generated instant controversy. President Donald Trump had just attacked the “deep state” at the FDA for holding up COVID-19 treatments; the next day, the normally staid and careful agency was cheerleading plasma as “another achievement in administration’s fight against pandemic.” The FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, boasted that plasma could save 35 out of 100 treated COVID-19 patients if the data held up—a claim so grossly misleading, he had to recant it.
The limited evidence available suggests that infusing patients with the antibody-rich plasma of found that patients who received plasma within three days of a COVID-19 diagnosis had marginally better outcomes than those who received it later. There is no randomized, controlled trial yet comparing patients who were given plasma with those who were not.
