By Andrew Nsoseka & Neville Mesumbe
Over 4000 COVID-19 recovered patients from Shincheonji Church of Jesus, in South Korea have declared their willingness to donate $83 Billion worth plasma for developing a new treatment.
According to an official from Green Cross Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company in South Korea, it is difficult to accelerate developing a medicine for COVID-19 with only 200 recovered patients who expressed their will to donate blood. The massive donation from the recovered patients in the Shincheonji Church will solve the problem of the lack of blood for research. This is because the amount of blood will be about $83 billion worth if the 4,000 patients donate 500ml individually.
The founder of Shincheonji Church, Man Hee Lee said members of the church are been advised to donate plasma voluntarily. “As Jesus sacrificed himself with his blood for life, we hope that the blood of people can bring positive effects on overcoming the current situation,” said Mr. Lee.
An official in the church noted that: “We had a discussion with the health authorities and tried to establish a plan with details for donation. Some of the recovered members have already donated individually, feeling thankful for the assistance from the government and medical teams. They expressed their will to make a contribution to the society,”
Some local governments in South Korea recently brought lawsuits against the church with allegations that the church did not cooperate with the authorities by not submitting the full list of church facilities and members.
The Vice Minister of Health, Kim Kang-lip said “no evidence has been found that Shincheonji supplied missing or altered lists. And there were only minor differences.” Academic researches on Shincheonji and COVID-19 stated that the church provided the list of its South Korean members, six days after it was requested and it was initially unclear whether shut down facilities and properties should be included when the government asked for the lists of real estate. A Shincheonji media coordinator said the church will cooperate fully with investigations from government agencies. South Korea has so far reported 12,535 confirmed cases and 281 deaths from COVID-19.
