Nuvance Health has been selected by Johns Hopkins University to be part of COVID plasma trials.  There are two trials underway at Danbury and Norwalk Hospitals and Vassar Brothers Medical Center.  This trial will help determine whether antibodies from people who have recovered from COVID-19 can help people who have either been recently exposed, or who have been recently diagnosed and have symptoms, avoid getting very sick or catching the disease. 

One trial is for people who tested for COVID-19 no more than 5 days ago and were positively diagnosed, who still have symptoms but haven’t been hospitalized. People who were  in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 no more than 3 days ago, who don’t have any symptoms are also included.  The other is for people who have needed hospitalization. 

Participants will be compensated.  Enrollment is being done by contacting Johns Hopkins at 888-506-1199 or visiting CovidPlasmaTrial.org and filling out a questionnaire.  People can also call 203-739-7411 and speak with a screener.

This is the first U.S. multi-center, double-blind, randomized clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of convalescent blood plasma as an outpatient therapy.  If this option is deemed effective, Dr. Joann Petrini of Nuvance Health says it would be one of the lower-cost options for treating and/or preventing coronavirus illness worldwide, compared to vaccines, which might be too costly for some populations and countries.