Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart is now COVID-19 negative after being diagnosed two weeks ago.
As a result, the 6-year NBA veteran has announced that he’s planning to donate blood for medical studies to help secure a treatment against the coronavirus.
Michael Joyner, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic, informed ABC News that four NBA players that recovered from the virus are donating blood to the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, an experimental treatment that could help high-risk individuals recover from the virus.
Marcus Smart is the only player identified, while the other three players have yet to come forward.
According to a memo from league officials, the NBA front-office contacted team physicians to encourage players who have recovered from COVID-19 to consider participating in the experimental treatment.
Joyner believes the experimental treatment “can modifying the virus and reduce the duration and severity of the illness in some patients.”
”The experimental treatment uses the antibodies in the blood of recovered patients to stop the virus in sick patients. Professional athletes would be valuable plasma donors,” Joyner said. “These are big men with high blood volumes, and as a result, they have a lot of plasma volume. People who are physically in shape have an increase in their plasma volume over just the average-sized guys.”
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