Could a Covid vaccine help treat patients indirectly?

November 19, 2020 8:39 PM

Medical/Scientist Mefites: Once someone is able to obtain a vaccination for COVID-19, could that person’s donated plasma be used for convalescent plasma therapy for current COVID patients? (Assuming enough time has passed for antibodies to be generated in the would-be donor)
posted by DB Cooper to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

Best answer: This study suggests it's not promising. What you suggest is not exactly the same as convalescent plasma, but the concept - donation of plasma containing antibodies - is similar.
posted by SquidLips at 8:46 PM on November 19, 2020

Response by poster: Hmm, thanks for your response. Hopefully some head-to-head studies of plasma from recovered patients may reveal different qualities in plasma from vaccinated volunteers. Maybe less cytokines or something that often cause those inflammatory crises or something. I don’t know, grasping at straws here. Thanks.
posted by DB Cooper at 9:45 PM on November 19, 2020

Best answer: Plasma is a also a pain to deal with and requires significant effort and expertise- convalescent plasma was never going to be a mass treatment, but rather for the most at risk (healthcare workers) and most vulnerable (immunocompromised). Now that we are single digit weeks away from a highly effective vaccine being available to those people, and also now that monoclonal antibody treatments (same idea as convalescent plasma but actually shown to work) are also rolling out, I doubt there will be much more work done on convalescent plasma as a treatment option.
posted by rockindata at 4:08 AM on November 20, 2020 [3 favorites]