The number was wrong, but on Sunday,

thank you very much, the Trump administration was fixated on it.

I just want to emphasize this point because I don't want you to gloss over this this number.

That's Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

We dream in drug development of something like a 35% mortality reduction.

Then there was the FDA commissioner, Steven Hahn.

35% improvement in survival is a pretty substantial clinical benefit.

And of course, the president.

It is proven to reduce mortality by 35%.

It's a tremendous number.

They were talking about a treatment for COVID-19 that uses something called

convalescent plasma. This plasma is taken from the blood of people who have had the virus

and survived. And the FDA just approved it for emergency use.

But turns out, these Trump administration officials were wildly overstating the benefit

of convalescent plasma. That number they used, 35% came from a misreading of data in one study

that has not yet been peer reviewed.

The actual number of mortality reduction is between 3 and 5 percentage points.

Steven, I want to thank you because the FDA really stepped up and especially over the last

a few days and getting this done.

Coming up from plasma to testing to a vaccine, more than at any point in this pandemic,

scientists are afraid that politics are driving public health decisions.

This is considered this from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It is Friday, August 28th.

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