Out-of-state convalescent plasma donors fight COVID-19 in Delaware

Written with Gustavo Martínez Contreras. Story can be found here.

Days after the Blood Bank of Delmarva called for plasma donations from recovered COVID-19 patients, workers there noticed a steady stream of donors with New Jersey and New York accents.

They wore white shirts, black trousers and round cloth caps and were all coming from out-of-state Orthodox Jewish communities.

To date, a large percentage of the plasma collected at the Delaware blood bank has come from these unique donors.

Orthodox Jewish communities in the Northeast were severely hit early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths in those tight-knit communities in New York state and New Jersey were in the hundreds.

Many of those who survived the virus lined up to get tested for antibodies, hoping that, if positive, they could take part in the research to help develop a treatment for those battling the disease.

"It was heartwarming to see people who were hit hard by COVID-19 doing something so positive to give back and fight alongside us on the frontlines against this pandemic," said Tony Prado, a spokesman at the Delaware blood bank.

Lakewood, New Jersey, resident Eli Steinberg, spent five weeks at home with his wife and five children in quarantine after recovering from the virus. He then drove two hours to Delaware in the middle of a pandemic to help save lives.

"It's really a small thing to do in the research of a treatment to potentially help people sick with the virus," Steinberg said.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma to treat the illness, but researchers believe this plasma has the potential to boost the immune system of those not able to produce enough antibodies to fight off the viral infection.

Steinberg, 36, a public relations and communications consultant, is part of a legion of Observant Jews traveling from Orthodox enclaves in the New York area to blood banks across the Northeast.

The initial push for this began in Monsey, New York, and quickly spread through other Orthodox enclaves across the country thanks to the several health and medical support networks that operate in them, the Jewish news site the Forward published in an April 22 story.

The coalition promotes plasma donation and connects donors with blood banks. After finding that there weren't available donation spots at the New York Blood Center, the first donors from the New York and New Jersey area began mobilizing to more distant blood banks.

Many ended up at the Blood Bank of Delmarva's Stanton and Dover locations.

"We're sending all over because it's not only a local thing and it's affecting everyone," Bikur Cholim's scheduling coordinator Simi Halpern said.

On a busy Tuesday morning in mid-May, staff at the Delaware blood bank ushered people in for temperatures checks before filling out paperwork for donating.

Most chairs where donors give plasma were filled. Lakewood committeeman Meir Lichtenstein sat eating a snack after donating as members from other Orthodox communities in Maryland were ushered to chairs to be prepped for donation.

"This is like donating blood during war," Lichtenstein said. "We're going to come back and donate as often we're allowed."

Since the beginning of the blood bank's convalescent plasma program, members of Lev Rochel Bikur Cholim of Lakewood, have made up a large percentage of the 469 donors thus far, Prado said.

There also have been several donors from similar Orthodox enclaves in Maryland.

“The Lakewood Community has been so responsive to the need for convalescent plasma donors and they are a wonderful group to work with on this important process,” said Jamie Ford, calendar plan schedule specialist for the Blood Bank of Delmarva.

Additionally, Bikur Cholim, an organization that helps sick Lakewood residents and their families since it was founded in 1991, donated $5,000 worth of daily meals, desserts and snacks to the blood bank. The blood bank staff received candy bars, chocolate covered pretzels, pastries and other food, Prado said.

"We do whatever it takes to help in this crisis," Halpern said.

As of May 28, ChristianaCare treated more than 150 patients with convalescent plasma, the hospital's Senior Manager of Media Relations Hiran J. Ratnayake said.

Though the COVID-19 patients are being treated, it's too soon to know how effective the treatment has been or will be, according to Dr. Alfred Bacon, medical director of clinical trials for ChristianaCare Medical Group.

"We also need to consider that the patients who are receiving this treatment are receiving other therapies, so it is hard to know which one is having the most beneficial effect," Bacon said. "Of all the treatments we are using, we believe that Convalescent Blood Plasma transfusions are potentially the most helpful to patients with COVID-19.”

The blood bank has given more than 1,000 convalescent plasma units to health care institutions throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, Prado said.