Hopkins To Lead Effort On COVID-19 Therapy

Johns Hopkins University will research the potential use of convalescent plasma as a therapy for COVID-19.

The research is funded by a $3 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies and $1 million in state funding, Gov. Larry Hogan's office said in a statement.

“Taking on the greatest public health challenge of our generation requires urgent and innovative collaboration. As scientists work to develop a vaccine, plasma treatment has the potential to save many lives – including the lives of doctors and healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic,” said Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

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Infectious disease expert Arturo Casadevall is leading the research at Hopkins. He is leading a team of physicians and scientists to establish a network of hospitals and blood banks that can collect and isolate blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors which could then be used to treat current patients and boost the immune systems of health care workers.

Ben Carson, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a former pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, touted the potential of the treatment in a Thursday interview with WBAL talk host Jerry Rogers.

"It was used effectively in the 1918 flu pandemic and, basically, it takes advantage of the fact that if you've had an infectious disease, you develop antibodies to it... and those of course persist in your plasma," Carson said. "It's proved effective over the decades against a lot of viruses so there's good reasons to believe it will be effective against this one as well."

The Hopkins research team plans to conduct a randomized clinical trial for both treatment of COVID-19 patients at all stages and prevention of infection after high-risk exposure.

"We are very fortunate that Maryland has some of the top health research facilities in the world, and I am confident in our state's ability to be a leader in developing treatments and perhaps even a vaccine for COVID-19," Hogan said.

Hopkins is partnering with institutions including the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University Medical Center.

The university is also leading an extensive effort to map the progression of the virus.