New COVID-19 Breakthrough?
- fionacsweet
- Aug 23, 2020
- 2 min read
President Trump plans to hold a news conference today regarding a potential therapeutic "breakthrough" for treating COVID-19. He's going to announce this development at 6 p.m. ET. Earlier yesterday, Trump stated that someone at the FDA was purposefully attempting to delay clinical trials for therapeutics and vaccines for political purposes. Trump tweeted this: "Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!" However, the president decided not to expand on this claim or provide any evidence whatsoever.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fired back and called the president's accusation "dangerous." Pelosi said "this was a very dangerous statement on the part of the president. Even for him, it went beyond the pale in terms of how he would jeopardize the health and well-being of the American people." Anthony Fauci has previously said that he is "cautiously optimistic" a vaccine could be available by the end of 2020 but that it wouldn't be widely available until later next year (at the earliest). It is also unlikely that this vaccine will be close to 100% effective. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said it is possible that the virus could be over in two years. He said this Friday that "we hope to finish this pandemic (in) less than two years, especially if we can pool our efforts." So, we better pool our efforts, because while two years is still a long time, it is a lot better than being stuck in masks for 5 or more years. Therefore, I don't have much faith that now we suddenly have a miracle cure.
UPDATE: Trump has announced the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients. One of his top health experts has called the plasma "promising" while other health experts say it needs more study before it's celebrated. Here are the facts: the blood plasma (which has been taken from patients who have recovered from the virus and are rich in antibodies) may provide benefits to those struggling with the disease. However, the evidence to support this conclusion has not been conclusive about whether it works, when to administer it, and what dose it needed.
So do with that information what you will. I say that we need much more evidence before cutting through all this red tape.
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