TRENTON, NJ – The was once a meme on the internet that said if President Donald J. Trump discovered a cure for cancer, Democrats would come out the next day and support cancer and criticize the President for eradicating a disease against its will. It was a funny meme, but today that meme has become a reality as Democrats pounce on Trump and the FDA for making access to COVID-19 symptom fighting convalscent plasma easier for Americans.
Today, Congressman Bill Pascrel, Jr., 99 or something, called convalscent plasma “unproven” and called on the FDA to refute Trump’s claim that the plasma is helping to save lives.
“Just yesterday Reps. Don Beyer, Katie Porter, and I called on the FDA to crackdown on unproven treatments and be guided by science and science alone in stopping covid. I’m glad he listened to us,” old man Pascrel said.
Back in May, even New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy touted the success of convalscent plasma.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated our communities and hit North Jersey particularly hard,” said Governor Murphy. “By opening two convalescent plasma collections sites in North Jersey, where there is a concentration of the state’s highest infection rates and deaths, the American Red Cross can identify more donors and better serve patients in need of this therapy. I am extremely grateful to the partnership between the American Red Cross and University Hospital for their collaboration in bringing convalescent plasma collection and therapy together for the benefit of our fellow New Jerseyans.”
“I’d like to thank Governor Murphy for his insight into this treatment’s potential, his concern for the people of New Jersey, and for taking action to bring the American Red Cross together with University Hospital in Newark for this partnership to help increase the collection of lifesaving plasma,” said Rosie Taravella, CEO, American Red Cross New Jersey Region.
In that May press release Murphy explained why it was so hard for suffering New Jersey residents to get the plasma and urged all New Jersey residents previously infected with the virus to donate their plasma to save others.
In June, Hackensack Meridian Health began treating patients with the plasma.
“As the body fights any virus it forms immune-boosting antibodies to fight off the illness,” said Elliot Frank, M.D., MBA, FACP, FIDSA, medical director, Quality & Outcomes, Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Transfusing plasma from recovered patients which contains COVID-19 antibodies may improve patients’ chances of surviving this infection. “We are using the convalescent plasma, under the FDA’s emergency investigational new drug process, in the experimental treatment of hospitalized patients to assist in their recovery.”
NJ.com even reported that patients who received the plasma were seeing remarkable recoveries as far back as April.
Virtua Health said both Renee Bannister, a 63-year-old teacher from Gloucester County, and Andy Fei, a 61-year-old opera singer from Mount Laurel, have been taken off of ventilators and moved out of intensive care beds at Virtua Voorhees Hospital after receiving the plasma.
“We are incredibly excited about these remarkable recoveries,” Dr. Eric Sztejman, a medical director for Virtua Health, said in a release. “We performed the transfusions just days after the clinical trial was announced, so it is gratifying to be among the first in nation to explore this promising approach to combating the coronavirus.”
