Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been hit with a shoe in the past. His face has also been blackened by ink smeared. He has been slapped. Now he has been thrown egg on the face. Literally.
The newspapers in the Capital on Tuesday morning were full of a preening Kejriwal, stating: What Delhi did yesterday, America does today.
The chief minister of the Capital was reacting to Federal Drug Administration (FDA) claiming that blood plasma is a definite way forward for Coronavirus treatment.
“They used to say, back in the day—what American does today, India would do tomorrow. Delhi has changed it. Now—what Delhi did yesterday, America does today,” Kejriwal had swaggered.
Only, if Kejriwal had waited for America’s tomorrow. The news has now filtered in that FDA has reversed its claims on blood plasma efficacy in treatment of the pandemic.
Stephen Hahn, commissioner of FDA, reversed himself on Monday night.
“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,” said an ashed-faced Hahn.
Hann’s earlier claim was that blood plasma from Covid-19 survivors given to new patients could save huge number of lives. It has been claimed that mortality decreases and health of patients improve if blood plasma is administered in the first three days of hospitalization.
Kejriwal had launched Delhi’s first plasma bank last month at state-run Institute of Liver nd Binary Sciences (ILBS) for treatment of Covid-19 patients.
It’s not immediately clear why Hahn went back on his earlier claim. The data, it seems, shows that while there are promising signals that it will lead to a real benefit when compared to a placebo, that’s not known yet.
