[SFDXA] Radio Amateur is Co-Leader of Just-Published Blood Plasma Research Study

[Bill]

Radio Amateur is Co-Leader of Just-Published Blood Plasma Research Study
/From The ARRL Letter for January 21, 202//1/

Scott Wright, K0MD -- a well-known amateur radio contester and past 
editor of the /National Contest Journal/ (/NCJ/) -- was a co-principal 
investigator of a research project into the use of convalescent plasma 
to treat COVID-19 patients. The study, Convalescent Plasma Antibody 
Levels and the Risk of Death from COVID-19, appeared in the January 13 
edition of the prestigious /New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)/.

The study began early last April under the co-leadership of Wright and 
Dr. Michael Joyner, MD, both of the Mayo Clinic; Dr. Peter Marks, MD, 
PhD, Dr. Nicole Verdun, MD, of the US Food and Drug Administration, and 
Dr. Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Marks 
is AB3XC. The Mayo Clinic was the lead institution for the program. 
Initially heading up one segment of the study, the Mayo Clinic asked him 
to formally step in as co-principal investigator and to assume the 
forward face with the media.

"We report a 6.3% absolute reduction in mortality for those who received 
high-titer convalescent plasma, and a 36% relative risk reduction in 
mortality for those who received it while not on a ventilator," Wright 
summarized briefly. "We are hopeful it will have an impact globally 
where more advanced -- and expensive -- therapies may not be available."

The US Convalescent Plasma Expanded Access Program was a collaborative 
project between the US government and the Mayo Clinic to provide access 
to convalescent plasma for patients in the US who were hospitalized with 
COVID-19. The government-supported study collected and provided blood 
plasma recovered from COVID-19 patients containing antibodies that, it 
was theorized, could help these individuals fight the disease.

Wright said that in contrast with most studies, the investigators 
designed and carried out the research without help from National 
Institutes of Health (NIH). "It was an enormous project, not to mention 
that over 105,000 people enrolled in the study," Wright said. "The 
/NEJM/ paper is a subset analysis of 3,000 or so subjects. We did a lot 
of innovative things with the FDA's permission to make this a study that 
quickly enrolled patients, physicians, and hospitals."

Wright said the study participants cooperated with all but five hospital 
systems in the US and had sites in all US territories overseas and 
military facilities. "Our physicians locally at the sites enrolled twice 
as many minority subjects as any randomized clinical trial ever," Wright 
said, and we had about half men and half women as subjects -- something 
most trials struggle with."

The study has attracted some media attention. Wright was interviewed by 
NBC News. "We were happy to have some media interest, especially given 
the other news in Washington, DC, that overshadows this naturally," he 
said. "It is just a great feeling to have it published and peer reviewed."

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