FDA, under pressure from Trump, authorizes blood plasma as Covid-19 treatment

The FDA yesterday issued an emergency use authorization for using convalescent plasma therapy — where blood from people who have recovered from Covid-19 is infused into patients battling the infection. The announcement, which came amid pressure from President Trump on the FDA, has been met with mixed reactions because of a lack of strong evidence supporting the therapy's effectiveness. An FDA official's review of the data squarely placed plasma therapy in the "may be effective" column. The FDA's decision "would have a stronger foundation if patients had participated in a randomized study that looked at whether patients who received plasma fared better than those who didn’t," former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, but he also tweeted that the data seemed to justify an EUA. One health law expert, however, shared that the FDA's decision under political pressure “risks further damage to public trust in the agency.”