Covid-19 therapy controversy
This week Science in Action examines the evidence around the Trump Administration\u2019s emergency use authorisation of convalescent plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid-19. Donald Trump described its US-wide roll-out as \u2018historic\u2019 but the majority of scientists and doctors disagree, questioning the scientific basis for the government\u2019s decision. Roland Pease talks to Mayo Clinic\u2019s Michael Joyner, the leader of the convalescent plasma therapy study on which the action was based. The Mayo Clinic trial involved a large number of patients but none of them were compared to Covid-19 patients who were not treated with convalescent plasma. Trials that incorporate that comparison are the only way to properly assess the therapy\u2019s effectiveness. Roland talks to Martin Landray of the University of Oxford who is testing convalescent plasma therapy in the UK\u2019s Recovery randomised control trial, and to medical ethicist Alison Bateman-House of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
We also talk to nanotechnologist Marc Miskin about the million-strong army of microscopic robots he\u2019s creating in his lab at the University of Pennsylvania.
Presenter: Roland Pease\nProducer: Andrew Luck Baker
(Main image: New York lab tests serum from recovered covid-19 patients for possible therapy. Credit: Misha Friedman / Getty Images)