Trump announces plasma treatment authorized for COVID-19

https://apnews.com/3296040fb1225ee7fa465d7baa5057da

So, Trump has announced the FDA's emergency authorization to use convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 and again called it a "breakthrough" while his own expert team mentioned reservations.

I don't understand why Trump doesn't tout instead, his real accomplishments on this front.

He had previously touted Remdesivir. A randomized controlled trial showed that Remdesivir works for severe cases. And now another randomized controlled trial, published last Thursday by the JAMA, showed that Remdesivir works for moderate cases too (although weirdly enough, the improvement was seen for patients treated with it for 5 days but not for patients treated with it for 10 days - this needs to be better understood as some explanations are possible, but regardless of the 10-day issue, the study does demonstrate quite convincingly that Remdesivir given for 5 days works for moderate disease too, with a p=0.02).

Trump has secured pretty much the world's whole stock of Remdesivir for the use of American hospitals. How many people know that? That's a major accomplishment, for a medication that is proven to work and has been already approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19.

Why isn't Trump talking about Remdesivir??? I know that he mentioned it once, in a positive light... A second randomized controlled trial now confirming that it works, should be a matter for Trump to rejoice and diffuse.

And what about the vaccines? Contrary to what Trump's opponents say that he had nothing to do with the speed of their development, that's simply not true. The Warp Speed Initiative DID make a major impact. By funding companies to start production ahead of conclusion of phase 3, Trump did achieve a marked acceleration both in development and in production, cutting down on the timeline. Normally vaccine makers take their time to go from phase 1 to 2 to 3 because they don't want to spend millions and billions with development and production if they are unsure if the vaccine will work and will be safe, so, for example, they will want an 8-month long phase 2, a 2-year long phase 3, etc. By injecting 9.5 billion into the companies making the vaccines, Trump dramatically shortened these delays. A company now can afford to do a phase 2 in one month and a phase 3 in three months, because they are not risking to lose money, given that HHS has already granted them the money.

Trump should better explain to the population what a major accomplishment this initiative is, and how much more likely and infinitely faster vaccines can come along, thanks to his administration.

See, doing phase 2 and 3 faster doesn't mean corners are being cut. It's still the same number of subjects (for example, for Moderna's vaccine, 600 for phase 2, and 30,000 for phase 3) traditionally used. Just, vaccine companies are able to jump into it immediately instead of making darn sure that they are not betting on the wrong horse and won't end up with a useless production infrastructure and 30,000 useless vials if their vaccine fails. Thanks to the Warp Speed initiative, if that happens, the companies won't lose money so they don't need to wait and they don't need to proceed at a slow pace. Not to forget, red tape was shortened, too.

Plasma? Great, it's good that there is another possibility and it's good that the FDA has granted to it its emergency approval. But this is still quite uncertain. I'd say, much less certain than Remdesivir and vaccines.

Why isn't Trump highlighting the things that have already worked, in great part thanks to his administration?

Remdesivir works, and was made available to our hospitals, thanks to Trump.

There are 6 vaccines already in phase 3, and 3 of the six are only already in phase 3 thanks to the massive HHS financial support (the other three are Chinese).

For me, these are major victories. I don't understand why the president is not talking more about these, rather than risking this idea of "breakthrough" that may end up not paying off (RCTs with plasma are still ongoing and the few studies already done are quite inconclusive).

Mr. President, stick with the proven stuff! Do highlight that you secured Remdesivir for us. Do highlight that from 2 to 3 years, your initiative and vision is likely to produce vaccines in one year. Those are major victories. Touting unproven things is actually less convincing. Do mention the plasma, but as an additional possibility, not as a bombastic breakthrough. Then if it works, great; but if it doesn't, you won't appear foolish, if you refrain from this language.

How many Americans know what is going on with Remdesivir? Very few... people rather talked about hydroxychloroquine, and now, plasma. The former didn't pay off. The latter is still uncertain. How many Americans know about the impact of Warp Speed? Very few.

I think, Mr. President, you should be VERY specific in clarifying for the people why the Warp Speed initiative is delivering good results, and why many doctors now think that one of the reasons why ICU mortality has dropped, is because of Remdesivir. This would earn you more political points than this plasma announcement.

 

it has been discussed but being an election year, NBC/ABC/CBS/NPR choose not to report it

 

Something new and shiny to announce. Campaigning. (And remdesivir is hard to say...)

 

I'm saying, HE should be saying these things when he does press briefings, and maybe should say these things during the convention as well. The public are not being informed about these successes.

 

LOL, true