To the Editor:
Re “Stung by Trump, F.D.A. Authorizes Plasma Therapy” (front page, Aug. 24):
President Trump has no scruples about prematurely pronouncing the efficacy of inadequately tested Covid-19 treatments and vaccines.
By undermining the independent authority of the Food and Drug Administration and labeling the federal agency as populated by “deep state” operatives, all pandemic-oriented medical decisions under his watch are suspect — another norm shattered.
It couldn’t be clearer that our lives and the lives of our loved ones are meaningless when pitted against his blind political ambition.
Andrew Malekoff
Long Beach, N.Y.
To the Editor:
It now appears that our president has managed to bully the Food and Drug Administration into allowing the use of plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients without the proper double-blind studies to prove its effectiveness and safety. It seems that Donald Trump is playing with American’s health the way he plays golf: He cheats.
Richard Goldman
Solon, Ohio
To the Editor:
It is shameful that the F.D.A. caved to political pressure to give this emergency use authorization. The Infectious Diseases Society of America, reviewing the same data, concluded that the utility of this treatment is not yet clear.
Is the administration going to exert this same pressure on the F.D.A. (which obviously caved) regarding emergency use authorization for a vaccine? Where is the regard for the health of Americans? Certainly not at the F.D.A. or the White House.
Alice Baruch
New York
The writer is an infectious disease specialist.
To the Editor:
How interesting (and not surprising) that President Trump makes an announcement late Sunday afternoon about convalescent plasma as a miracle drug to fight the coronavirus. The president makes it sound as if this is a major breakthrough to save lives. Yet I’m confused, because convalescent plasma has been around for a while, and it has been given to patients with the virus, but there have been doubts about how helpful it has been.
As the Republican convention begins, will each day this week bring another “announcement”?
Jennifer Dorn
New York
To the Editor:
I have two words for President Trump and others in his administration who are politicizing the search for a Covid-19 vaccine and treatments by cutting corners and ignoring well-established approval protocols: Remember thalidomide.
Robert S. Carroll
Staten Island
To the Editor:
I will not be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus until I have seen the president and the first lady being publicly vaccinated, proving that they believe that the vaccine is safe and effective, and that it has not been produced in a hurried process for political reasons.
Laura M. Wilbur
Southport, Conn.