In continued combat against COVID-19, the call for more and better data has grown gradually louder: good information to help equip researchers with understanding of the virus — and options to fight it. One of the treatments now considered among the more promising: convalescent plasma — shown as safe over decades of use, and widely touted for its promise. Yet it must face further clinical trial.
Now, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $34 million grant to conduct a yearlong, nationwide study of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19. The study will furnish what health officials have been urging: robust data built on randomized, controlled experiments which could help fill the knowledge gaps about the virus.