„It’s going to be an effective medicinal ingredient.”
About 500 members of Shincheonji Church, the Christian church in South Korea, have started to donate plasma needed for the treatment of COVID-19.
In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea, the number of Coronavirus infections among the members of Shincheonji Church soared, and most of them are now released from quarantine after being completely cured, being able to donate antibodies.
According to GC Green Cross, a pharmaceutical company developing a medicine using the plasma, they needed the minimum amount of plasma good for at least 150 people in order to proceed clinical trials, however, had difficulties in developing the cure due to insufficient amount of plasma available. Starting from the 13th, 500 people would participate in the plasma donation sequentially.
„We’ve had help from the medical staff before, so we’re taking part in it with the heart of returning what we’ve received. There are a lot of people who suffer from COVID-19, but I hope it will be a little bit of support and hope for them,” said a Shincheonji Church member who participated in the plasma collection.
(Regarding the plasma donation, Kim Shin-woo, the head of Daegu City’s Infectious Disease Management Support Team said on the air, „We expect, of all the medicinal ingredients, those antibodies extracted from plasma will be effective without side effects, and they will be a weapon to save secondary infection crisis or serious patients.”)
While COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, the mass plasma donation of Shincheonji Church believers is in the public eye whether it will be a game-changer in developing the cure.
