Convalescent Plasma Use in the United States was inversely correlated with COVID-19 Mortality: Did Plasma Hesitancy cost lives?

ABSTRACT: The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Convalescent Plasma (CCP) therapy for hospitalized COVID-19 patients via the Expanded Access Program (EAP) and the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), leading to use in about 500,000 patients during the first year of the pandemic for the US. We tracked the number of CCP units dispensed to hospitals by blood banking organizations and correlated that usage with hospital admission and mortality data. CCP usage per admission peaked in Fall 2020, with more than 40% of inpatients estimated to have received CCP between late September and early November 2020. However, after randomized controlled trials failed to show a reduction in mortality, CCP usage per admission declined steadily to a nadir of less than 10% in March 2021. We found a strong inverse

SUBMITTER: Casadevall A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8043483 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature