Why we're still relying on a century-old strategy to treat COVID-19

[Buckeye_Democrat]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/13/21216513/plasma-blood-coronavirus-treament-drug-development-antibodies

COVID-19 research is advancing at an unprecedented speed, but one strategy doctors are leaning on to treat COVID-19 patients looks more antiquated than innovative. In hospitals around the United States, caregivers are resorting to using century-old convalescent plasma therapy — siphoning blood from survivors and reinfusing it into the sick.

That’s because the hundreds of research papers published in the past few months and the record-setting leaps in vaccine development haven’t been fast enough to keep up with the blistering speed of the ongoing pandemic. People are sick and dying now, which is why doctors are falling back on plasma therapy as one stopgap measure that they hope can help in the lag time before other treatments come online.

My niece is the director of operations at a local hospital. One of their elderly doctors contracted the Coronavirus a couple weeks ago, and he demanded a transfusion which contained antibodies from a recovered Covid-19 patient. Other doctors at the hospital wanted the same treatment for him.

He recovered with no severe symptoms. (Just a fact, not an argument that it’s always effective.)

My niece told her mother (my sister) that it’s not a typical treatment at the hospital, but special accommodations were made for that long-time doctor.

[customerserviceguy]

1. Sometimes

the old methods still work. Edward Jenner popularized the concept of vaccination over two centuries ago, and the only people who reject that idea are anti-scientific Luddites.

It takes time to do clinical trials on new treatments, sounds like your niece's elderly doctor associate didn't feel that he had the time to wait for peer-reviewed studies.

[Drahthaardogs]

2. Because that is all we have

And it works. My buddy had a Labrador that caught parvo and survived. A few times a year the vet would call him and ask of he could use him for a transfusion for a puppy with parvo

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. What I thought was interesting is that...

... my niece said it wasn’t the typical treatment at her hospital.

If it helps, I’d hope it’s applied to more people than just the doctors. And if there’s a shortage of plasma/blood from recovered Covid-19 patients, then offer to pay more for it to increase the stockpile.

[Baclava]

3. Lots older than that, the practice of quarantine began during the 14th century

Ships arriving in Venice from plague infected ports were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing

Quarantine, was derived from the Italian words quaranta giorni which mean 40 days.

They had way cooler masks though

[crickets]

5. Whatever works. K&R for visibility.