It is official: we are founded!
The founding members of the Initiative Immunspender came together in Cologne today to give the association its legal form. The first misson: The mobilization of recovered Covid-19 patients as immunity donors.
Köln, 07.04.2020
We have come so far and have only just started!
With these words the newly elected first chairman of the 'Initiative Immunspender e.V.' i.f., Thomas Mosbach, closed the foundation meeting of the association. The initiative is launched to fill a gap. Because so far there is no position that brings together free capacities for the collection of blood plasma donations and voluntary plasma donors.
It would also be better to name the plasma donors in this case as immunity donors. Because that's what it's all about: obtaining antibodies against Covid-19, the disease that is considered the worst clinical form of infection with the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 and, as a pandemic, changed the whole world in a few weeks and is likely to change it forever.
"So far there is no causal therapy that works directly against the virus. We only have our excellent health system. However, we cannot save all patients. And soon we will probably not even be able to provide everyone with adequate care", reports Thomas Mosbach. The digitization expert recognized this deficiency at an early stage and started designing and realizing over five weeks ago what has found its legal framework in the non-profit 'Initiative Immunspender' today.
The initiative has set itself an ambitious goal: "As soon as the theapie with antibodies against Covid-19 is released, we want to make maximum use of all of the nationwide places available for the production of antibodies in order to make the immunoglobulin accessible to as many people as possible."
Another purpose of the association is to promote research. Partner institutes have the opportunity to submit research projects which are then directed to the users. The results are passed on anonymously.
And the founders also thought about the time after Covid-19. "There are many topics that we can address. Above all, we want to be prepared if something similar happens again. And it will happen."
We are motivated to work on our goal, we are happy to take the next steps and we are confident that in the end we can do our part to cope with the Corona crisis.