Dump expected to announce convalescent plasma "breakthrough." Here's the truth from a medical doctor

[fleur-de-lisa]

Eric Topol @EricTopol

Today's "breakthrough" announcement is unlikely to be any breakthrough.

1. Convalescent plasma has no randomized trials. It contains many antibodies that have no neutralizing effect. If it has efficacy, it will be be relatively modest, at best.

2. There are no new, large-scale randomized trials that have been completed with repurposed drugs; the combination of JAK inhibitor (Baricitinib) and Remdesivir may have results but it only has 400 patients and no replication.

3. Type 1 interferon (intranasal) early, preventive therapy has considerable promise (reviewed w/ @VirusesImmunity and thisThread; there are many trials but they are in progress.

4. True breakthroughs in medicine are exceedingly rare. It is even more rare—actually unprecedented—for they to be announced by a politician, no less a @POTUS. In the context of other magic and cures that have similarly been proclaimed in recent months, this all aligns well.

5. It's even worse than this. There is no breakthrough and the @US_FDA commissioner @SteveFDA has caved to Trump's pressure (including yesterday's tweet) to promote it as if there was one.

12:14 PM · Aug 23, 20

Link to tweet

[Squinch]

1. Yes. He's working hard to remove the FDA from the agencies we can trust. During a pandemic.

[iemitsu]

2. Just another batch of lies

cooked up by the lying-est president in history.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. snake oil shyster gotta shyst

[underpants]

4. Just flipped over to CNN. Why today? Sunday night at dinner time?

Tomorrow would be much better. I guess they want the discussion leading up to their convention to be about this.

[IcyPeas]

7. Jim acosta from cnn just said this too.

[JI7]

10. Also to try to get attention away from the Trump sister recordings

[fleur-de-lisa]

15. I think you're right. I think he was really stung by that.

Glad to see the media isn’t letting the Maryanne Trump Barry story go. CNN is still talking about it.

[Blue Owl]

5. Mike Pence suggested re-branding it as Convalescent Plasmother

n/t

[underpants]

8. Why isn't Pence their environmental guy?

It would make sense being that he’s basically a potted plant.

[LastDemocratInSC]

14. That's funny, and simple and right to the point.

[fleur-de-lisa]

18. LOL! I have a Fiddle-Leaf Fig that is smarter

and more charming than Putz.

And he can be alone in a room with a woman.

[gulliver]

6. It's just Trump feeding the broadcast news something to talk about all day.

And, they're doing it.

[underpants]

9. Yep.

His base will hear that he created a cure.

[empedocles]

12. "This plasma is even better than Lysol'

[reACTIONary]

21. +10 nt

[BSdetect]

11. All media ought to use these facts rather than pander to drump

[moondust]

13. Snake Oil King speaks!

I'm sure he "thinks" that pretending to be the superhero that saved the world from the deadly Trumpovirus will get him a lot of votes and "win" him a second term (when combined with massive voter suppression).

[yuiyoshida]

16. The President (ahem) Is grasping at STRAWS....

UM no... BAILS OF HAY... no... MAKE it COW manure.

[AZ8theist]

17. Has Jared done the research??

I would only trust this if Jared said it was a breakthrough.
After all, he's solved the Middle East peace situation, the opioid crisis, the racial problem, the housing crisis, reforming government, the PPE shortage, the Chinese patent crisis, the pillow guy sales crisis, the Goya advertisement situation, the Rose Garden cemetery conversion, the........., the..........

[fleur-de-lisa]

20. Well, he read a couple articles.

[AZ8theist]

23. Hopefully a Google search? Maybe watched a couple of Youtube videos?

Apparently, the only requirement to gain EXPERT FLAT EARTH KNOWLEDGE is watching a few Youtube videos.
So I'm sure Jared did his due diligence and completed that research as well.

I feel so much more safe, don't you?

[DenverJared]

19. It is sad to see FDA caving in like this

All they have to do is hold firm for 3 months.

[Warpy]

22. The NPR article went further and said it didn't appear to have any effect on saving lives.

A "modest effect" would most likely do the most good on people ill enough to need oxygen but not ill enough to be on a ventilator.

Found it: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/19/903982549/nih-warns-data-on-effectiveness-of-convalescent-plasma-in-treating-covid-19-is-w

I find two problems here: first, a randomized trial might produce useful data, but at what cost? It's not as though there are alternative treatments beyond Interferon-a via nebulizer and remdesivir is far from a silver bullet; second, given the number of people who have had it with few or no symptoms out there, the "control" plasma might not be all that much of a control. The data obtained would be junk.

Were I to design a trial, I'd design it around which patients benefited the most and when it was most beneficial to administer it. Plasma is one of the safer blood products, hives and headache are the most common adverse effects.

[fleur-de-lisa]

26. Thanks for the info.

[paleotn]

24. Smoke and mirrors...waste of time and effort...meaningless without data.

Rinse, repeat. There. Fixed it for the TV talking heads.

[Eyeball_Kid]

25. In other words, Trumpy-Boy is bullshitting us. Again.

The breakthrough announcement means nothing. Again. Trump is lying. Again.

Trust NOTHING Trump says. He lies all the time. Believe him once, and you'll regret it.