After expressing frustration at the slow pace of approval for coronavirus treatments, U.S. President Donald Trump was set to announce on Sunday the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients.
The announcement will come after days of White House officials suggesting there were politically motivated delays by the Food and Drug Administration in approving a vaccine and therapeutics for the disease that has upended Trump's reelection chances.
The White House had grown agitated with the pace of the plasma approval, but the accusations of a slowdown, which were presented without evidence, were just the latest assault from Trump's team on the so-called “deep state” bureaucracy. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows did not deal in specifics, but said “we've 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.
“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,” Trump tweeted. “Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!” But it wasn't a formal study. The patients were treated in different ways in hospitals around the country as part of an FDA program designed to speed access to the experimental therapy. That so-called “expanded access” program tracks what happens to the recipients, but it cannot prove the plasma - and not other care they received - was the real reason for improvement.
Hundreds of drugs are currently being developed as possible treatments against the coronavirus infection, taking a range of approaches. The FDA in late March granted emergency authorization for distribution of the drugs for treating COVID. But in June, the agency revoked the authorization in light of growing evidence they don't work and could cause serious side effects.
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