https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-08-01/inside-the-clini...

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    https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-08-01/inside-the-clinical-trial-testing-the-healing-powers-of-blood-from-covid-19-survivors

    ‘This is helping people’


    So far, the herculean effort appears to be yielding signs of promise. Data from about 5,000 patients with severe cases of COVID-19 suggest the treatment is safe. Findings from an uncompleted trial in China suggest that the critically ill elderly and patients of all ages with moderate illness might benefit the most from the treatment.

    A “study of studies” posted online Friday by the project’s leaders offers a tantalizing, if preliminary, hint of the lives that could be saved by convalescent plasma. Led by Joyner, the team aggregated the findings of the China trial and 10 other studies that documented convalescent plasma’s use in a total of 525 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Patients who got the experimental treatment were 57% less likely to die of COVID-19 than were comparably ill patients who did not, the researchers concluded.

    Findings expected to be released in the coming weeks will begin to show whether that promise is borne out in American patients hospitalized for COVID-19, Joyner said. By summer’s end, team members will be analyzing the therapy’s effects on patients who have not needed hospitalization and those who’ve been exposed but show no signs of illness.


 
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