ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, NIKOLA STOJADINOVIC
President Donald Trump announced yesterday (August 23) that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, a disease that has so far killed more than 170,000 people in the US.
“To deliver treatments and vaccines, we’re removing unnecessary barriers and delays, not by cutting corners, but by marshaling the full power of the federal government,” Trump said at a press conference announcing the decision. “Based on the science and the data the FDA has made the independent determination that the treatment is safe and very effective.”
While he hailed the new treatment as a “major breakthrough,” the scientific community has largely reacted with skepticism, in part because the authorization was based on a handful of studies from the Mayo Clinic that failed to include appropriate randomization and controls.
“I watched this in horror,” ...
