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Marcus Smart, who is now coronavirus-free, is donating his blood plasma to the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project for research on the blood of those recovered from coronavirus, according to Shams Charania. Two days ago, the NBA asked players who have been cleared to make plasma donations.
The project gathers the blood plasma from survivors in hopes finding a treatment for the virus. It’s practice that dates back more than 100 years, and it involves injecting the blood of recovered patients into those still fighting the virus. The antibodies produced by those free of COVID-19 could fight the virus in those still sick.
Marcus Smart ladies and gentleman. While he not only took it upon himself to identify as the one Celtic with the virus, he’s also donating blood in order to find a cure. If that doesn’t get him a DPOY then I’m not entirely sure what will.
On a more serious note, a vaccine is the ultimate goal and something that would stop this horrific virus in it’s tracks. More should take Smart’s lead as the more samples they have, the easier it could be.
There have already been tests using antibodies so it figures that they’ll be able to push further along in the process in the coming days/weeks. Blood samples are everything and scientists will be hard at work using all of the resources available to them.
“There have been tests that show when a person is injected with the antibodies, that then stimulates and promotes their immune system against that disease,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week.
Any sort of progress is welcomed and it should start to give us some more visibility on what it would take to actually take this virus down. A huge part of this is the fact that once the blood plasma is collected, it can be sent out quickly and put into research. I imagine more high-profile carriers will follow and begin to make donations.
While most of us would rather be seeing Smarf dive for loose balls, being on the front-lines of a pandemic will have to do for now.
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