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Beginning early on in the coronavirus pandemic, some researchers looked to experiences of past outbreaks for lessons, proposing that some patients might be saved by a decidedly old-fashioned remedy: plasma taken from people who’d recovered from the disease in infused into patients. The idea is that such plasma contains antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 that can give patients’ immune systems a boost in fighting the disease. The approach caught on. Presently, about 1,500 patients a day are receiving this treatment in the US, Buzzfeed reports—but convalescent plasma’s very popularity is making it difficult to get solid answers on whether the remedy really works, and for whom.
“Without a randomized control trial, it’s very difficult to be certain that what you have is meaningful,” epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University tells The New York Times. Lipkin had been conducting such a trial, in which patients are randomly assigned ...
