Trump mandates emergency authorization of COVID-19 treatment [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• During Sunday’s White House press conference, President Donald Trump said that he granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) an emergency use authorization of the convalescent plasma treatment for COVID-19.
• Trump’s emergency authorization comes as a response to the apparent issue of intentional delays by the FDA to approve the use of pertinent vaccines and medicines against the coronavirus.
• Over 64,000 patients in the US had already been administered with the said treatment.

President Donald Trump on Sunday granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue an emergency use authorization of convalescent plasma which he boasted as a “major breakthrough” in treating COVID-19.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday that the agency “has issued an emergency use authorization… for a treatment known as convalescent plasma.”

“This is a powerful therapy that transfuses very very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection,” he said. 

The president also added that the grant will “expand access to this treatment.”

“Based on the science and the data, the FDA has made the independent determination that the treatment is safe and very effective,” Trump continued. 

The president’s emergency grant comes as White House aides noted last week that there were concerns over issues of politically-motivated delays by theFDA on approving potential vaccine and medicine to treat COVID-19.

The White House is becoming more impatient over the slow pace of plasma approval. According to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, they have ” looked at a number of people that are not being as diligent as they should be in terms of getting to the bottom of it.”

“This president is about cutting red tape,” Meadows told ABC’s This Week. “He had to make sure that they felt the heat. If they don’t see the light, they need to feel the heat because the American people are suffering.”

On Saturday, the president lambasted the agency’s ‘delayed’ process on battling the coronavirus, which already took over 176,000 lives in the US, and hurt his chances for a second term in the White House.

“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!,” Trump tweeted.

On Sunday, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told on CBS’s Face the Nation that the convalescent plasma treatment is “probably beneficial.” He also refuted the president’s suggestion on the plot to slow down its approval.

As of this posting, convalescent plasma is already administered to over 64,000 patients in the US.

It is obtained from patients who have recovered from COVID-19. It contains lots of antibodies that could provide benefits for current patients who are battling the disease.

The president has called on all recovered COVID-19 patients across the country to donate their blood plasma.

Source: Fox News