Monday, August 24, 2020

President Trump grants emergency authorization for use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients, dubbing it a “major breakthrough."

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President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus for emergency use. The president spoke about the approved treatment during a White House press conference on Sunday evening. “This is a powerful therapy that transfuses very, very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection,” Trump wrote. “It’s had an incredible rate of success.” The treatment takes convalescent plasma from blood donated from patients that have recovered from coronavirus. Under current FDA guidelines, convalescent plasma is regulated as an “investigative product.” “We broke the logjam over the last week,” Trump said when asked about the difficulty getting the treatment approved for emergency use by the FDA. The president thanked FDA administrator, Dr. Steven Hahn, for helping lead the project. “It is only made possible because of Operation Warp Speed. That is, everybody working together,” Trump said referring to his administration’s effort to speed treatments and vaccines for coronavirus. Trump said that approvals were years ahead of schedule and previewed exciting news about vaccines in the upcoming days. “We are removing unnecessary barriers and delays, not by cutting corners, but by marshaling the full power of the federal government,” he said. Hahn said that the independent judgment of scientists and experts and from more than a dozen published studies confirmed that the treatment was effective and safe, citing a 35 percent rate, which he said was “significant.” “We’re waiting for more data, and we’re going to continue gathering more data, but this clearly meets the criteria we’ve established for the emergency use authorization and we’re very pleased with these results,” he said.

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