Tricare, a health care program of the United States Department of Defense Military Health System, mistakenly told more than 600,000 people that they had had the new coronavirus originating in China, and asked the “COVID survivors- 19 “to consider donating blood for research.
In a mass email sent on July 17, more than 600,000 Tricare users in the Eastern Region of the military health system were asked to consider donating blood for research based on their alleged status as “survivors” of COVID-19, Military.com reported last week. As noted in the report, “31,000 people affiliated with the US Army have been diagnosed with the coronavirus,” which shows a clear mistake in the mass email.
“As a survivor of COVID-19, it is safe to donate whole blood or blood plasma, and your donation could help other patients with COVID-19,” the email said. “Your plasma likely has antibodies (or proteins) present that could help fight coronavirus infection. Currently, there is no cure for COVID-19. However, there is information to suggest that the plasma of COVID-19 survivors Like you, it may help some patients recover more quickly from COVID-19. “
A recipient posted on Facebook about the email, noting that he was never tested for COVID despite being told by Tricare that he had the virus. “Just wondering [if] anyone [got] an email from Tricare saying that since you are a survivor of COVID, please donate your plasma. I have NOT been tested, “the user posted on social media, according to the report.” Just remember that all those people who enter data are human and make mistakes. “
Humana Military, the company that partially manages Tricare, “called on blood donors located near military facilities to collect plasma from recovered coronavirus patients, also known as convalescent plasma, as a possible treatment for the disease,” he said. Military.com. However, the message was sent via email “to each beneficiary located near a collection point”, causing the error.
Hours after the significant error, Humana sent an apology,
“In an attempt to educate recipients living near convalescent plasma donation centers about collection opportunities, he received an email that incorrectly suggested he was a survivor of COVID-19,” the company said in an email from tracing. “He has not been identified as a survivor of COVID-19 and we apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.”
Humana’s corporate communications leader Marvin Hill acknowledged the error in a statement to Military.com.
“As part of an effort to educate military beneficiaries about convalescent plasma donation opportunities, Humana was asked to help our partner, the Health Defense Agency,” Hill said. “The language used in the email messages for approximately 600k beneficiaries gave the impression that we were trying to reach only the people who tested positive for COVID-19. We quickly follow the initial email with a second clear and accurate message acknowledging this. We apologize.”
Errors by other health care entities have also occasionally caused confusion about people’s COVID-19 status, as well as infection rates. Earlier this month, Nashville man Brock Ballou said he received at least three calls from the state regarding his apparent symptoms after testing positive for the new coronavirus. Only Mr. Ballou was never examined, he said. Two weeks ago, the Florida State Department of Health confirmed that some testing labs in the state have not revealed their negative results of novel novel coronavirus tests accurately, skewing positivity rates dramatically. At least two laboratories were found to have inflated their virus positivity rates by a factor of ten.
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