Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of COVID-19: Perspectives of the National Institutes of Health COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel.

• Authors: Alice K. Pau, National Institutes of Health; Judith Aberg, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Jason Baker, University of Minnesota; Pamela S. Belperio, Department of Veterans Affairs Los Angeles; Craig Coopersmith, Emory University; Page Crew, National Institutes of Health; David V. Glidden, University of California San Francisco; Birgit Grund, University of Minnesota; Roy M. Gulick, Weill Cornell Medicine; Carly Harrison, LupusChat; Arthur Kim, Harvard Medical School; H. Clifford Lane, National Institutes of Health; Henry Masur, National Institutes of Health; Virginia Sheikh, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Kanal Singh, National Institutes of Health; Jinoos Yazdany, University of California San Francisco; Pablo Tebas, University of Pennsylvania
• Journal Title: Annals of Internal Medicine
• Volume: Volume 174, Number 1
• Publisher: ACP | 2021-01, Pages 93-95
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.7326/M20-6448
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Health Care Management
• Keywords: COVID-19; Humans; Immunization, Passive; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); Plasma; SARS-CoV-2; United States

Abstract

Currently, no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved therapeutics exist for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this context, the pandemic has put considerable pressure on health care providers to prescribe treatments despite limited information about their safety and efficacy. This pressure has exacerbated the tension between the importance of practicing evidence-based medicine and the urgency of providing access to promising therapies before their safety and efficacy are established.