Yesterday afternoon the President announced the FDA approved the emergency use of plasma treatment for C-19 patients. I watched the press conference.
Here’s an article regarding it;
https://www.theblaze.com/news/convalescent-plasma-coronavirus-treatment-trump"The FDA's emergency authorization for convalescent plasma is a milestone achievement in President Trump's efforts to save lives from COVID-19," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. "The Trump Administration recognized the potential of convalescent plasma early on."
"We dream in drug development of something like a 35% mortality reduction," Azar said. "This is a major advance in the treatment of patients."The FDA said convalescent plasma "may be effective in treating COVID-19 and that the known and potential benefits of the product outweigh the known and potential risks of the product."
Over 70,000 U.S. patients have been given convalescent plasma as part of an expanded access program from the FDA and the Mayo Clinic, officials told the Washington Post.
Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators found convalescent plasma "to be safe following transfusion in a diverse group of 20,000 patients."
After the end of the press conference, I switched to CNN where they immediately began tearing Trump to shreds saying he was just adding to his campaign rally rhetoric and using the virus as a political tool.
They went on to discuss this is too fast of a protocol to be safe and is unproven data and results. The President has been continually accused of being too slow to react as well as not doing enough to help patients and here is a positive approach to treatment and he’s wrong for doing it too fast.
Later in the evening around 8:30, back on CNN there was an interview with a doctor who claimed to have worked on a plasma treatment for children and it took 10 years to get approval through the FDA because of all the guidelines that had to be met. He was complaining that these thing take time. To me it sounded like sour grapes that this treatment went through so quickly but his work took 10 years.
The President being accused of politicizing a treatment in an election year is inevitable I guess. Anything he does is a political event, so maybe he’s not supposed to do anything during the year leading up to an election so he isn’t accused to making moves or doing his job for political reasons if it makes him look good.
From the very beginning of the C-19 issue, he and Pence has discussed how they have removed red tape that limits how the FDA can approve and fast track drugs and treatments.
