Some COVID-19 survivors reportedly have a super-charged immune response.
In a “60 Minutes” report to air Sunday on CBS, a team of doctors and scientists interviewed about their study of convalescent plasma therapy — a treatment used in the 1918 flu pandemic — say some people's plasma is packed with virus-killing antibodies 10 to 50 times greater than other donors.
"It looks like about 20% of people have really, really an extraordinarily good immune response," Dr. Michele Donato tells the news program.
"And what we're looking at is if giving a quantity of neutralizing antibodies is the best way to approach it. But that's what this study will tell us."
Convalescent plasma therapy works by infusing ill patients with antibodies of people who survived COVID-19. Researchers believe it may be one of the most effective therapies because it is safe and has a proven track record with other infectious diseases, CBS News noted.
"Right now, our best drug is the one that's manufactured by those patients and those individuals who have recovered from this disease," David Perlin, biomedical researcher and chief scientific officer at Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation, tells “60 Minutes.”
Perlin and Donato, the lead investigator for the study, received expedited approval from the FDA to collect and test donors' plasma to find the people with high quantities of the most powerful antibodies.
Fewer than one third of the thousands of survivors offering to donate qualify.
"There's nothing I've done in my life to have these antibodies. But the fact that I have them, maybe I was blessed with them to help somebody,” plasma donor Rick Loshiavo told “60 Minutes.”
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