US President Donald Trump will address the Council for National Policy Meeting in Arlington, Virginia on Friday, August 21, 2020.
Tasos Katopodis | UPI | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump will announce on Sunday the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma for Covid-19, according to the Washington Post and other reports.
The president will make the announcement at a press release on Sunday night. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the briefing at 5:30 p.m. “will involve a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China virus.”
Convalescent plasma uses blood from Covid-19 patients who have recovered and built antibodies against the virus and infused it into people with Covid-19 to prevent serious illness, according to the Mayo Clinic, which is conducting research into the treatment.
Several top health officials including White House coronavirus adviser Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, have raised concerns about the data on the country’s largest blood plasma study. Concerned that the data was too weak, the Food and Drug Administration asked to put a stop to the allocation of emergency use for the blood treatment.
Clinical studies have not proven whether plasma can help patients fight the coronavirus. An emergency authorization does not require the same amount of evidence as FDA approval. There are currently no FDA approved drugs or vaccines against the coronavirus.
Trump reacted angrily to the FDA’s decision to withhold emergency authorization until more data is checked, and said last week that the decision could be politically motivated.
“I hear great things about it … that’s all I can tell you,” Trump said in a White House press release, referring to restorative plasma therapy. “It can be a political decision, because you have a lot of people who do not want to rush things, because they want to do it after November 3, and you have heard that one before.”
Trump has claimed without evidence that the convalescent plasma has helped more than 50% of coronavirus patients who received the treatment.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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