ArticleeLife2021
Convalescent plasma use in the USA was inversely correlated with COVID-19 mortality.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Timing, Titre, and Host Determinants of Convalescent Plasma Efficacy in COVID-19: A Systematic Review With Design-Stratified Narrative Synthesis.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Pooled it
- Trial
- Safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma for severe COVID-19: a randomized, single blinded, parallel, controlled clinical study.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Trial
- Outcome of SARS CoV-2 inpatients treated with convalescent plasma: One-year of data from the Veneto region (Italy) Registry.European journal of internal medicine · 2022Trial
- Convalescent Plasma for Preventing Critical Illness in COVID-19: a Phase 2 Trial and Immune Profile.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Trial
- A phase 2 single center open label randomised control trial for convalescent plasma therapy in patients with severe COVID-19.Nature communications · 2022Trial
- Azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine in hospitalised patients with confirmed COVID-19: a randomised double-blinded placebo-controlled trial.The European respiratory journal · 2022Trial
- A randomized controlled study of convalescent plasma for individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2021Trial
- A humanised ACE2, TMPRSS2, and FCGRT mouse model reveals the protective efficacy of anti-receptor binding domain antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 hybrid immunity.EBioMedicine · 2025Article
- Convalescent Plasma and the US Expanded Access Program: A Personal Narrative.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2025Review
- COVID-19 clinical presentation, management, and epidemiology: a concise compendium.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Estimates of actual and potential lives saved in the United States from the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Avoided and Avoidable Deaths with the Use of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Italy during the First Two Years of Pandemic.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cytokine, Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibody, and Neutralizing Antibody Levels in Conventional Blood Donors Who Have Recovered from COVID-19.Transfusion medicine and hemotherapy : offizielles Organ der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Transfusionsmedizin und Immunhamatologie · 2024Article
- Hyperimmune Plasma and Immunoglobulins against COVID-19: A Narrative Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Clinical trials and their impact on policy during COVID-19: a review.Wellcome open research · 2024Review
- Rates Among Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 Treated With Convalescent Plasma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2023Article
- The emergency use authorization for COVID-19 convalescent plasma reduced mortality.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Misinterpretation of Clinical Research Findings and COVID-19 Mortality.Annals of internal medicine · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Background: The US Food and Drug Administration authorized COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy for hospitalized COVID-19 patients via the Expanded Access Program (EAP) and the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), leading to use in about 500,000 patients during the first year of the pandemic for the USA. Methods: We tracked the number of CCP units dispensed to hospitals by blood banking organizations and correlated that usage with hospital admission and mortality data. Results: CCP usage per admission peaked in Fall 2020, with more than 40% of inpatients estimated to have received CCP between late September and early November 2020. However, after randomized controlled trials failed to show a reduction in mortality, CCP usage per admission declined steadily to a nadir of less than 10% in March 2021. We found a strong inverse correlation (r = -0.52, p=0.002) between CCP usage per hospital admission and deaths occurring 2 weeks after admission, and this finding was robust to examination of deaths taking place 1, 2, or 3 weeks after admission. Changes in the number of hospital admissions, SARS-CoV-2 variants, and age of patients could not explain these findings. The retreat from CCP usage might have resulted in as many as 29,000 excess deaths from mid-November 2020 to February 2021. Conclusions: A strong inverse correlation between CCP use and mortality per admission in the USA provides population-level evidence consistent with the notion that CCP reduces mortality in COVID-19 and suggests that the recent decline in usage could have resulted in excess deaths. Funding: There was no specific funding for this study. AC was supported in part by RO1 HL059842 and R01 AI1520789; MJJ was supported in part by 5R35HL139854. This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority under Contract No. 75A50120C00096.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.