Marcus Smart of the NBA's Boston Celtics is donating his blood plasma to help in research on coronavirus, according to a tweet Wednesday from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
The blood will be donated to the “National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project for research on the blood of those recovered from coronavirus,” Charania wrote.
Charania reported that the NBA is supporting the project, which includes specialists on plasma, as a possible treatment for coronavirus, and has requested from those who have recovered to consider donating plasma.
Smart, who is one of a handful of NBA players to test positive for the coronavirus, announced this week on Twitter that he was now free of it, according to Bleacher Report.
Since no vaccine exists for coronavirus and it is unclear how quickly one can be developed, doctors are using the plasma of people who have recovered from it to learn more about possible treatments, according to The Atlantic.
Doctors are not only using plasma on a case-by-case basis in an attempt to treat very ill patients, but are also hoping to study convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 in a more systematic manner.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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