John Hopkins researchers explore ways to prevent coronavirus blood clots

BY NIKITA YOUNG

According to Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos a doctor from the John Hopkins Medical Research team who treats COVID-19 patients, there are a number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 that are experiencing abnormal blood clots.

If a blood clot forms it can deprive your veins or arteries from oxygen, kill your connecting cells or cause stroke in serious cases. COVID-19 patients who have sickle cell are at high risk of death because they already experience blood flow issues Dr.Galiatsatos says. This is most seen in the black population. Sickle Cell affects around 1 in every 365 black people.

It is still unknown if the blood clots are a direct effect caused by COVID-19 or if the patients showing these symptoms experience clotting due to underlying causes. Based on data collected by Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital the patients with the most severe symptoms of COVID-19 were found to have high levels of a blood clotting protein called Factor V. Patients who were critically ill from COVID-19 that had low amounts of the Factor V protein seem to have an increased risk of death because of blood clots forming in small vessels.

Those found with blood clots in their nervous system experienced a higher chance of stroke. Doctors believe blood clotting has been the reason they are seeing some young healthy people with Covid experiencing strokes. Kidney function could also be at risk for failure if clotting develops in the blood vessels of the kidney.

The John Hopkins Medical Research team found that spike proteins in the coronavirus take over part of the body’s immune system leading to severe illness and devastating organ damage. The data collected by the research team shows that blood types O and B may have a lower risk of catching the coronavirus and that people with blood type A or AB could be at a higher risk of catching it, but this is still being researched so people should not assume that certain blood types are more immune to the virus.

COVID-19 is allegedly spread through droplet particles from an infected person not through blood; so those who have had Covid but are recovered can still donate blood and may actually help the blood recipient have a stronger immunity against the virus.

Dr. Robert Brodsky from the John Hopkins Medical Research team is a blood specialist researching how to prevent blood clots in COVID-19 patients and working on developing a treatment. Most of the clotting is being found in the lungs and veins. The researchers are looking at therapies that block the proteins that work against healthy cells and say that there are already drugs that are in development that will pass clinical trials in about two years and be available for use.

This form of treatment sounds exciting, but Dr.Sherri Tenpenny says that people should be aware that there are still many unknown variables when using these new MNRA treatments that develop proteins to block the spike proteins from entering your cells, like: how long will the protein last, how long the antibodies will last or how long the B cells will be active.

In a recent interview with Alex Jones she states that because there are no long term studies, we don’t know what the side effects will be of these types of drugs, and that you could be more susceptible to long term illness or even death if the proteins in these treatments stop developing or doing what they’re supposed to.