Mayo Clinic leading nationwide push to encourage COVID-19 survivors to donate plasma

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you’ve recovered from COVID-19 your blood plasma could save lives and now there’s a push to get you to donate it.

Mayo Clinic and other organizations are pushing survivors to donate their blood plasma through a campaign called “The Fight Is In Us”.

“If you survived it, then you’re the heroes we need,” said Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in a promotional video for “The Fight Is In Us”.

The Rock is just one of many Hollywood stars teaming up with Mayo Clinic and dozens of other organizations to get the word out.

Dr. DeLisa Fairweather, Mayo Clinic’s Director of Translational Research, said a study involving 20,000 patients revealed plasma is safe to use.

“In the study that just came out we found that we had decreasing mortality rate,” said Fairweather. “Which suggests that the plasma could be having a therapeutic effect.”

According to Dr. Fairweather, the plasma of a COVID-19 survivor when transfused into a sick patient, can bind to the virus and clear it from the bloodstream.

“We think that it also has other properties about it that can be healing,” said Fairweather.

Survivors willing to donate should do so within two months of recovery.

“Because that’s when the antibody levels are the highest,” she said.

The Fight Is In Us aims to connect survivors with patients at licensed blood and plasma donor centers.

Dr. Fairweather says the more donors the better.

“We actually need more people to donate all the time that’s why The Fight Is In Us is so important,” said Fairweather.

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