Trump FDA official apologizes for touting false plasma data

[still_one]

Dr Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, apologized Monday after misrepresenting a key statistic on how effective blood plasma is for treating COVID-19 when announcing an emergency approval measure.

The US on Sunday issued emergency approval for plasma taken from recovered coronavirus patients, so that more people can get access to the experimental treatment.

But Hahn and other senior health officials came under fire from experts after repeating a claim made by President Donald Trump that blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients reduced mortality rates by 35 percent.

“What that means is — and if the data continue to pan out — 100 people who are sick with COVID-19, 35 would have been saved because of the administration of plasma,” Hahn said Sunday, after Trump had called it “a tremendous number.”

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The officials said these results came from a study of 35,000 patients conducted by Mayo Clinic, but Dr Scott Wright, the study’s leader, told AFP it did not come from his institution’s research. He said he believed it might be an “integrated analysis” the FDA had arrived at by looking at both Mayo’s work and other studies.

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“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma,” said Hahn in a tweet thread on Monday night. “The criticism is entirely justified. What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/us-health-official-apologizes-for-touting-false-plasma-data/

[SheltieLover]

1. As if he didn't know better

[soothsayer]

2. Snip from the excellent Heather Cox Richardson

Today, scientists—including one who worked on the study the FDA leadership cited yesterday in Trump’s press conference—said they had no idea where Trump got the statistic that convalescent plasma had reduced deaths by 35%. They have called on the FDA to correct the statement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/health/fda-blood-plasma.html
F.D.A. ‘Grossly Misrepresented’ Blood Plasma Data, Scientists Say

Many experts — including a scientist who worked on the Mayo Clinic study — were bewildered about where a key statistic came from.

Snip
Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, erroneously said on Sunday that convalescent plasma would have saved 35 percent of coronavirus patients this year.Credit...Oliver Contreras for The New York Times
By Katie Thomas and Sheri Fink
Aug. 24, 2020

At a news conference on Sunday announcing the emergency approval of blood plasma for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, President Trump and two of his top health officials cited the same statistic: that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent.

Mr. Trump called it a “tremendous” number. His health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar II, a former pharmaceutical executive, said, “I don’t want you to gloss over this number.” And Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said 35 out of 100 Covid-19 patients “would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.”

But scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed this data, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study: those who were under 80 years old, not on ventilators and received plasma known to contain high levels of virus-fighting antibodies within three days of diagnosis.

[uponit7771]

3. Bookmarked, this guy fuckin knows better and did it anyway!!!!

[brewens]

4. There would be no guarantee we can ever get all of the convalescent plasma we need.

Patients recovered from COVID have to be capable and willing to donate their plasma. I've seen 38% of the population are eligible to donate blood. Recovered patients would be fewer than that. I have no idea how much of the plasma drawn from accepted donors would be useable. How much has to be transfused to a patient to help them? Maybe it takes more than one donor per patient. Maybe one plasma unit can help more than one patient. We haven't been told much about this. It's no way near a sure fire miracle cure.

[grantcart]

5. Too Fucking late isn't it

[BKDem]

6. This fucking out of control.

[GusBob]

7. These stories about this plasma blunder are too wordy

Just say Trump lied

Good god

[crickets]

8. +1

[Hekate]

9. Is this the guy Dr Vin Gupta said should turn in his white coat & resign?

Dr Vin Gupta does sober medical commentary from time to time on MSNBC regarding the pandemic — when this plasma scam was announced, his comment was that he himself “wears a white coat and talks on tv,” but that the MD from the FDA who made this misleading announcement should resign from his post.