Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday admonished Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat for sharing “unsubstantiated information” concerning plasma donation by the recovered Covid-19 patients.
The minister responded to a tweet from Shafqaat, which claimed: “If you have recovered from coronavirus you can donate your plasma at 10 day intervals. “Coronavirus patients are on ventilators. Their chances of recovery are improved by 80% with this [plasma] treatment.”
Taking Shafqaat to task, Chaudhry said: “There is no such research to back your claim. [Government] officials must be very careful for making such observations.”
“In Ministry of Science and Technology, we are keeping track of [international] and local research. [Such] claims are unsubstantiated,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the head of the National Institute of Blood Disease & Bone Marrow Transplantation (NIBD & BMT) and hematologist, Dr Tahir Shamsi, said that plasma treatment was showing positive results.
