COVID-19 treatment: Start collecting plasma/serum & whole blood of recovered patients now!

(Intended for physicians and hospitals.) I suggest that we create a program to call people 7–10 days after they recover and ask them if they can come in to donate blood and plasma/serum. This can potentially be an alternative to ventilators and when drugs run out. It’s old school, but it is quite effective.

Peak of immunity tends to be 2–3 weeks after recovery, and then decline. Week 4–5 should be roughly equivalent to week 2–3.

Blood banks can collect both plasma and whole blood. However, the most effective treatment is fresh whole blood of a matching type with white cells intact. This is because the activated CD4’s and CD8’s will help the patient’s immune system, particularly the CD8 T-cells. It is those cells that clear a virus infection. Antibodies don’t clear infection, because they can’t destroy the cell factories that are producing T-cells.

This whole blood treatment was also shown to work in Kikwit to treat Ebola. However, it follows from understanding immunology that this is how it works.

Hospitals should set up their own programs, could make the question part of their discharge SOP for the duration. For very sick patients, make type compatible whole blood transfusions.