SARS-CoV-2 variants and convalescent plasma: reality, fallacies, and opportunities

Casadevall et al discuss severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants and convalescent plasma. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants that evade vaccine immunity would be a cataclysmic development for a world expecting relief from the pandemic and a return to normality, since these could cause new cycles of infection in vaccinated individuals and those who recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some media reports have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 variants emerged as a consequence of CP use for COVID-19. This hypothesis followed a report that CP treatment in an immunosuppressed patient with COVID-19 was associated with the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variant populations in that patient, some of which exhibited reduced susceptibility to antibody neutralization.