President Trump: FDA allowing experimental blood-related therapy to help patients fight COVID-19

LOS ANGELES - During Sunday's task force briefing, President Trump announced that the FDA is allowing a new experimental therapy to help coronavirus patients.

“The FDA is also allowing the emergency use of a blood-related therapy called convalescent plasma,” President Trump said.

He was discussing a potential treatment for Covid-19 during a White House briefing with his Coronavirus Task Force. The treatment isn’t new. In fact, it’s been around for more than 100 years.

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“Back as far as 1918 in the Spanish Flu we used this kind of plasma transfer,” said Tarzana based Physician, Dr. Michael Hirt.

He said the idea is to inject plasma of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 into those who are sick, giving the immune system a boost. “These are proteins in your plasma that can directly attach to and neutralize the bacteria or the virus that’s infecting you,” Hirt said.

But the doctor warns that it may not work for patients who are in advanced stages of the disease or those already on ventilators. “The chances then of plasma therapy turning that patient around. 

Turning the tides and giving that patient the needed immune boost may be less successful.” The President also recently touted another treatment using an anti-malarial drug in combination with the common antibiotic known as a Z-pack.

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Hirt says this does appear to help some patients. And in a dose of good news for us here in Los Angeles, Hirt says while about 80-percent of his patients are showing symptoms of coronavirus, so far all of them have recovered. 

“If you or a loved one gets ill, chances are very high that the person is going to make a full recovery without a lot of additional therapy,” Hirt said.