More than 64,000 patients in the U.S. have been given convalescent plasma, a century-old approach to fend off flu and measles before vaccines. There’s no solid evidence yet that it fights the coronavirus and, if so, how best to use it. Also, some patients have requested plasma rather than agreeing to a study that might give them a placebo instead. They show that 20% of people given high-antibody plasma within three days of diagnosis had died within 30 days compared with 30% of people treated later with low-antibody plasma. COVID-19 survivors harbor widely varying amounts of antibodies, which Ortigoza said is difficult to measure before the donated plasma is used.

Source: ABC News August 14, 2020 19:30 UTC