NEW YORK - Thousands of people who have beat COVID-19 donate blood hoping that it can help someone who is sick.

While national and clinical trials are still testing how effective the treatment is, Mount Sinai has released one of the first studies showing the plasma therapy possibly can help patients recover.

The small study based on the first 39 patients given plasma treatments at Mount Sinai shows people who received the therapy did modestly better than those who did not. Researchers say it’s helpful because there is no other data published yet measuring how effective plasma is in treating COVID-19.

The study shows plasma recipients were more likely to survive than those who did not receive the plasma. About 12 percent of the plasma recipients died compared to roughly 24 percent of those who did not get the treatment. And plasma recipients were also discharged from the hospital at a slightly higher rate; nearly 72 percent as compared to roughly 67 percent for those who did not receive plasma.

“It’s clearly not a magic bullet, it doesn’t fix everyone,” said Dr. Nicole Bouvier, associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-senior author of the paper. “There’s still a lot we have to learn about when to treat and who to treat, but given the sort of treatment-limited environment, we don’t have much to treat people with, at least we have something and we know it has some benefit. Even though it’s not going to fix everybody, overall it does confer some benefit.”

More comprehensive data evaluating the usefulness of plasma treatments is expected this summer. Mount Sinai is also participating in a national program run by the Mayo Clinic, which is collecting data from more than 16,000 patients from around the country who have received plasma. Bouvier says the hospital has treated approximately 400 patients with plasma as part of the Mayo Clinic program.

“What’s really important about what the folks at Sinai have done is to give us again a first smell, a first hint, I think it has taken us from cautiously optimistic to a little bit more than cautiously optimistic as efficacy data starts to emerge,” explained Dr. Michael Joyner, professor at the Mayo Clinic and principal investigator in the national program.

The Mayo Clinic will take the lead in analyzing and publishing that data this summer. Joyner says they will try to answer questions like who makes a good candidate for a plasma treatment.

And more clinical trials underway across the country. Researchers say all of this information will show how plasma can best be used so the FDA can develop regulatory guidance and that could mean more widespread access.