Convalescent plasma is safe to treat COVID-19: nationwide study

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https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/convalescent-plasma-safe-treat-covid-19-nationwide-study-n1206126

A team of more than 5,000 doctors from over 2,000 hospitals and laboratories have been testing the experimental therapy, which involves transfusing the antibody-rich blood serum of recovered COVID-19 patients into people who are battling the illness.

“We're very encouraged that the treatment is safe,” Dr. Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic and the principal investigator of the study, told NBC News. “That was really the first hurdle for us. And showing that it's safe gives us confidence to move on and begin to try to understand the efficacy.”

Convalescent plasma therapy isn’t a new form of treatment. It has been used to fight past virus outbreaks, including Ebola, influenza and SARS.

But it hasn’t been used widely in the United States for decades, and its effectiveness has never been scientifically established due to a lack of robust trials.