- 5,079
- 7,570
A small study in India revealed that convalescent plasma treatment in hospitalized patients did not affect outcome. At first I was shocked, but it's actually not all that surprising for the same reasons that Remdesivir does not seem to work for hospitalized patients. By the time someone requires hospitalization, the virus has replicated so much that it's no longer the virus itself that's causing the problems. It's most often the body's immune response that's causing inflamation, clotting, etc (cytokine storm) that leads to hospitalization, ICU, intubation, and death. Convalescent plasma, Remdesivir, and even the hyped monoclonal antibody cocktails work by stopping the viral replication before the damage has been done to prevent infected individuals from serious disease. If they are not given very early, they simply will not produce the desired results. Once the cytokine storm has begun, the best course of treatment is Dexamethasone (or similar steroid) to regulate the immune system overreaction and related inflamation/clotting.