A medical worker in New York checks blood for coronavirus antibodies. | Photo by Pablo Monsalve / VIEWpress via Getty Images
President Donald ***** plans to announce that the Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors as a treatment for sick patients, according to the Washington Post. ***** publicly pressured the agency last week to speed the development of drugs and vaccines.
Preliminary research suggests that the plasma, which contains antibodies against the coronavirus, could help improve the survival rate of people hospitalized with the disease. However, the treatment has only been tested in small groups of COVID-19 patients, and not in the large, placebo-controlled clinical trials that could give clear answers.
The FDA had plans to issue an emergency authorization for plasma at the start of August,…