3 ms·

There is no risk in blood plasma treatment. The FDA did an analysis of 20,000 patients who received the treatment, out of 70,000 total. If it does not end up

by cwhiz 6y ago

There is no risk in blood plasma treatment. The FDA did an analysis of 20,000 patients who received the treatment, out of 70,000 total. If it does not end up helping people it's much ado about nothing. There is no reason for the FDA to get in the way of a potentially helpful treatment with essentially zero risk. 180,000 Americans have died, let us try anything that we can.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> If it does not end up helping people it's much ado about nothing This is a frequent argument raised with respect to homeopathy and other quack cures. Unfortunately, unproven cures have a cost in avoided treatment and a false sense of security.
- rubber_duck 6y ago
  > a false sense of security You mean placebo effect ?
  - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
    > You mean placebo effect Not quite. Charitably, it’s like the seatbelt effect. With the advent of seatbelts, drivers were comfortable with riskier driving habits than they would have been otherwise. This is a problem per se. Doubly so if the seatbelt is a sham.
- cwhiz 6y ago
  Well, unfortunately, there aren’t any treatments for Covid-19. This is a shot in the dark for people who otherwise might just die.
mumblemumble 6y ago
> There is no risk in blood plasma treatment. Risks from blood plasma treatment include life-threatening allergic reactions and, hopefully less likely, transmission of bloodborne infections such as HIV and hepatitis. The study that is driving this shoe an improvement in outcomes that was statistically significant, but, given that it was not placebo-controlled, there is a lot of room for that result to be a straight-up illusion. Given such weak evidence of benefit, these risks, though small, do loom large.