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As a translational infectious disease researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine who had led many clinical trials for experimental HIV therapies, Katharine Bar was acutely aware that pregnant women are rarely included in such research. Then, in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, she witnessed several pregnant women suffering from severe symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection being admitted to the UPenn hospital system. As she and colleagues put together protocols for two trials to test infusing blood plasma from recovered patients, also called convalescent plasma, into sick patients as a treatment for COVID-19, Bar knew she wanted to include moms-to-be.
Bar and her colleagues officially launched the trials in May, running one for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and one specifically for COVID-19 patients on ventilators. While no expecting mothers have enrolled to date, their pregnancy would not ...
