More celebrities are putting their muscle behind “The Fight Is In Us,” an urgent campaign to encourage people to donate plasma.
“If you’ve had the coronavirus, you’ve got a lot of fight in you,” says Dame Helen Mirren, a celebrated British actress who has portrayed Queen Elizabeth.
“And you’re in a special position to help us fight back,” continues Samuel L. Jackson. “You fought for your life. Now, let’s take the fight to COVID-19.”
Also joining the call asking recovered patients to donate plasma are:
- Actor-comedian Awkwafina, who starred in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell;”
- “Hawaii Five-0” star Daniel Dae Kim, who himself is a recovered COVID-19 patient and has already donated his plasma;
- Musician Ryan Tedder of One Republic;
- Dr. Ken Jeong, who started his professional life as a doctor, and then switched to comedy, playing memorable movie roles in “The Hangover” and “Crazy Rich Asians.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson kicked off the donate plasma campaign with a video of his own. The celebs are backing The Fight Is In Us, a broad coalition of leading medical and research institutions, life science companies (including CSL Behring), tech companies and philanthropic groups. Donated plasma contains antibodies researchers hope will help patients who are struggling to recover from the novel coronavirus.
Donated plasma has been used in direct transfusions and the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance – of which CSL Behring is a member – is using it to develop an unbranded “hyperimmune.” The hope is that a shelf-stable, reliable dose of COVID-19-fighting antibodies will be a potential treatment. A clinical trial is expected in the next few months.
