About five weeks after being declared COVID-19 symptom-free, Blues announcer John Kelly is doing his part to help others affected by the coronavirus. In his case, that means donating plasma in hopes that his antibodies could help others battling illness.
Blues’ Kelly plans on donating plasma to help those dealing with COVID-19
Kelly told the Blues website how the study came about.
“A friend of mine at Washington University reached out to me and said they were doing a study like they are at places all over the world, and they feel there’s a really strong chance that people with antibodies for COVID-19 can help others who are still battling it,” Kelly said. “You donate blood, they extract your plasma and inject that plasma into very sick patients. The studies show that a lot of people that are sick are getting better because they’re using a recovered person’s antibodies to fight off the virus.
“If I can make one person better, that’s fantastic.”
A recent Wired article notes that this is called “convalescent plasma therapy.”
" ... it’s an old solution; doctors used it to help treat measles patients before a vaccine was developed and it has been used on Ebola, SARS, and MERS patients, as well as during the 1918 pandemic flu.”
Now, it’s unclear if taking plasma from Kelly and others will be effective in combating COVID-19. Medical experts believe that it’s unlikely to cause additional harm, however, so good on Kelly and others for donating plasma.
O’Reilly among others also chipping in
While Kelly was directly affected, other people involved with the Blues are also helping out. For instance, Ryan O’Reilly recently contributed 270 bottles of hand sanitizer to hospitals and retirement homes.
(You can learn more about that drive here.)
Robert Thomas also helped distribute hand sanitizer earlier in April, while Jordan Binnington pitched in to help people get masks.
The pandemic may be keeping @binnnasty from making saves on the ice, but now he's making saves off of it by delivering masks to police officers, firefighters and nursing homes. #stlblues #AllTogetherNow pic.twitter.com/4AzzWhT5k3
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 27, 2020
Nice work from the defending champs.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.