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Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

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Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#11

The Red Cross is soliciting potential plasma donors via a form at https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donati... They're currently working to establish antibody testing, and require potential donors to be at least 14 days from end of symptoms, but they will still accept your contact information and relevant details for later contact.

Assuming this treatment is viable, hospitals should be sending discharged patients home with the website and number to call for donating after recovery. I think most people will not see this or even know about it.

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#12
post #6

I read this last night: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3078840/coro... It's not peer reviewed so might not be valid or entirely accurate but worrying nevertheless.

Yes, it was already mentioned today in the update to parliament here. Apparently - as with other respiratory viral infections - if you don't get it really bad then you may not be immune. That's a pretty fine line there. This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences.

> This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences.

It seems far more likely to me that both of these phenomena are explained by higher-than-usual false positive and false negative test rates.

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it was already mentioned today in the update to parliament here. Apparently - as with other respiratory viral infections - if you don't get it really bad then you may not be immune. That's a pretty fine line there. This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences.

> This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences. It seems far more likely to me that both of these phenomena are explained by higher-than-usual false positive and false negative test rates.

Researchers are finding that COVID-19 testing has roughly 33% false negatives.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-cor...

The LabCorp test is not FDA cleared or approved and is being used under an emergency act.

"Testing was performed using the cobas(R) SARS-CoV-2 test. This test was developed and its performance characteristics determined by LabCorp Laboratories. This test has not been FDA cleared or approved. This test has been authorized by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). This test is only authorized for the duration of time the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use of in vitro diagnostic tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 infection under section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner."

The Quest test is not FDA approved either: https://www.questdiagnostics.com/dms/Documents/covid-19/SARS...

"It is possible for this test to give a negative result that is incorrect (false negative) in some people with COVID-19. This means that you could possibly still have COVID-19 even though the test is negative."

Due to this, it's hard to trust test results. It's a best effort and not perfect.

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#14
I work at a publishing company and I have been seeing more researcher interest in this paper recently from 2010 - Zn2+ inhibits coronavirus and arterivirus RNA polymerase activity in vitro and zinc ionophores block the replication of these viruses in cell culture - https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/j...

———— https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a048aadd-e0c3-3870-bf5d-6...

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#15
post #2

The New York Blood Center continues to appeal for plasma donors via a form on this page, "Convalescent Plasma COVID-19 Donor Request Form": https://www.nybloodcenter.org/donate-blood/convalescent-plas...

Many in NYC were unable to get a test. I was extremely sick mid-march and was unable to get a test because it was before New York started ramping up capacity. NY blood center requires a positive test result before they'll consider you for plasma donation.

Mt Sinai's study also accepts people that did not get tested for covid-19 at the time of infection. They will accept plasma and then test it for antibodies, which has the handy side effect of telling you if you already had covid-19. I'm scheduled to donate there next week.

https://redcap.mountsinai.org/redcap/surveys/?s=RCC7FNHK3Y

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#16

I work at a publishing company and I have been seeing more researcher interest in this paper recently from 2010 - Zn2+ inhibits coronavirus and arterivirus RNA polymerase activity in vitro and zinc ionophores block the replication of these viruses in cell culture - https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/j... ———— https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a048aadd-e0c3-3870-bf5d-6...

Have there been observed correlations with zinc deficient patients?

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences. It seems far more likely to me that both of these phenomena are explained by higher-than-usual false positive and false negative test rates.

Researchers are finding that COVID-19 testing has roughly 33% false negatives. https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-cor... The LabCorp test is not FDA cleared or approved and is being used under an emergency act. "Testing was performed using the cobas(R) SARS-CoV-2 test. This test was developed and its performance characteristics determined by LabCorp Laboratories. This test has not been FDA clear…

What are the false positives rate?

This would affect death rate calculations

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#18

The Red Cross is soliciting potential plasma donors via a form at https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/dlp/plasma-donati... They're currently working to establish antibody testing, and require potential donors to be at least 14 days from end of symptoms, but they will still accept your contact information and relevant details for later contact.

Assuming this treatment is viable, hospitals should be sending discharged patients home with the website and number to call for donating after recovery. I think most people will not see this or even know about it.

They really should follow up with the patients 14 days later and badger them to donate.

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Researchers are finding that COVID-19 testing has roughly 33% false negatives. https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-cor... The LabCorp test is not FDA cleared or approved and is being used under an emergency act. "Testing was performed using the cobas(R) SARS-CoV-2 test. This test was developed and its performance characteristics determined by LabCorp Laboratories. This test has not been FDA clear…

What are the false positives rate? This would affect death rate calculations

Dr. Fauci said the only thing you can count on are positive test results, so I would assume false positives are much more rare, but I'm not qualified to say. I do think it's safe to discount a negative test result, especially if you also test negative for flu A/B but still have flu like symptoms and difficulty breathing. Hopefully soon, antibody testing will be available and much more accurate.

Re: Promising Covid-19 treatment using convalescent serum therapy fast-tracked

#20
post #6

I read this last night: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3078840/coro... It's not peer reviewed so might not be valid or entirely accurate but worrying nevertheless.

Yes, it was already mentioned today in the update to parliament here. Apparently - as with other respiratory viral infections - if you don't get it really bad then you may not be immune. That's a pretty fine line there. This would explain some of the more puzzling positive / negative / positive test sequences.

Half-informed layman questions:

If this 30% recovered don't have antibodies, how did they beat the infection?

Does the immune system have some other mechanism to defat a virus?

Or does the antibody production taper off very fast for some people?

Or can the virus just die out by itself somehow?

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