Trump touts authorization of plasma, but scientists are doubtful Published on August 24, 2020 at 05:49AM by Josh Dawsey, Laurie McGinley, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Seung Min Kim, The Washington Post WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he had helped break through a regulatory "logjam" to grant emergency authorization of convalescent plasma to treat covid-19, a "powerful therapy" that he claimed "had an incredible rate of success," despite the fact that his own scientists are calling for more studies to definitively show whether it works. The announcement, at a news conference where Trump was flanked by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, drew criticism from physicians and scientists who said their statements misled the public by overstating the evidence behind a therapy that shows promise but still needs to be tested rigorously. "I watched this in horror,"