Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Plans To Re-Start Society All Rely On This Blood Test To Identify People Who Might Be Immune
The Washington Post: Testing Coronavirus Survivors’ Blood Could Help Reopen U.S.
At the root of almost every plan to restart society is a new kind of coronavirus test that searches not for the virus itself, but the remnants floating in people’s blood of the battle between their immune systems and the infection. These “serology tests” aren’t aimed primarily at people who currently have the disease caused by the coronavirus, but anyone who has ever had it — those who were very sick and got better, those who had mild symptoms they mistook for something else and those who never felt sick at all. (Johnson, 3/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Survivors Keep Up The Fight, Donate Blood Plasma To Others
Andrew Sherman, a Covid-19 survivor, is finally starting to feel better. One of the first things he did during his recovery: volunteer to donate blood plasma to help seriously ill patients fight the disease. Mr. Sherman, age 52, spent three days on oxygen in a New York City hospital in mid-March before being released to complete his recovery at home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife, Jodi Sheeler, and their two children: Maisy, 8, and Milo, 11. “I feel obligated to help now that I am on the other side of it,” Mr. Sherman said. (Marcus, 4/1)
Kaiser Health News: Blood Centers Will Collect Plasma From COVID-19 Survivors In Bid For Treatment
Blood donation centers across the U.S. are ramping up efforts to collect plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 in hopes it could be used to save the lives of others infected with the pandemic disease. Under guidelines released Tuesday by the AABB, an international nonprofit agency focused on transfusion medicine and cellular therapies, dozens of community blood centers nationwide could become a key source for the century-old treatment known as convalescent plasma therapy. (Aleccia, 4/1)
In other news on blood donations —
The Washington Post: Blood Banks Narrowly Averted A Supply Crisis. But They’re ‘Worried About Four Weeks From Now.’
Two weeks ago, the message from blood banks and hospitals was dire: Mass closures and disintegrating blood drives were creating a potential death spiral for perishable supplies nationwide as the coronavirus pandemic surged. Amid a respiratory-infection outbreak that has little to do with blood, doctors pondered the horror of treating patients who need transfusions with no blood to replenish their bodies. (Horton, 3/31)
