science.org SCIENCEPHOTO: ARIANESPACE/ESA/NASA/CSA/CNES/CC BY 2.Plasma shows COVID-19 promise
THERAPEUTICS | The antibody-rich plasma
of recovered patients can avert hospital-
ization if given early in the course of a
COVID-19 infection, a clinical trial has
found. The treatment already has an emer-
gency use authorization from the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) for certain
severe cases. But last month, the World
Health Organization recommended against
the use of convalescent plasma in SARS-
CoV-2–infected people with “nonsevere”
illness, citing 16 previous studies that found
the treatment didn’t prevent death or reduce
the need for mechanical ventilation. In a
study of 1181 U.S. patients within 8 days of
symptom onset, posted as a preprint on
21 December 2021 on the medRxiv server,
2.9% of those who received convalescent
plasma were hospitalized, versus 6.3% of
those who got a placebo. The trial’s investi-
gators propose that health authorities allow
use of convalescent plasma for outpatients
and in settings where monoclonal antibodies
or antiviral pills are not available.Bullying complaints draw apology
WORKPLACE | A month before leaving
her position as head of the U.K. Medical
Research Council for a top job at an
influential European science agency, stem
cell biologist Fiona Watt issued a public
apology to MRC colleagues who accused
her of bullying behavior. A 15 December
2021 press release from UK Research and
Innovation (UKRI), the body that includes
MRC and six other funding agencies, says
an independent investigator looked into
complaints made against Watt in 2020.
The agency did not disclose the findings
or the exact nature of the incidents. But
it says Watt has accepted the outcome
and apologized to her accusers. “I was
devastated to learn that my actions
and behaviour had affected colleagues
in a negative way,” Watt said in the press
release. UKRI Chief Executive Ottoline
Leyser called it “profoundly upset-
ting that people have experienced this
behaviour” and said she was grateful to
the whistleblowers. Watt told Science she
cannot comment before 10 January, when
she leaves MRC to become director of theNEWS
“
I felt pressured to vouch for tests I did
not have confidence in.
”
Former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, in testimony about Elizabeth Holmes, the company’s
former CEO, whom a U.S. jury this week convicted of four of 11 charges of fraud. Holmes had touted
the company’s blood-testing devices to investors after Rosendorff told her he questioned their accuracy.ASTROPHYSICSWebb telescope embarks on
new era in astronomy
A final view of the folded-up James Webb Space Telescope was snapped by the launch rocket’s upper stage.T
he $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope—NASA’s most ex-
pensive science mission ever—is already more than halfway to
its new post 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Launched on
25 December 2021 from French Guiana, the 6.5-meter telescope
is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope; it
will gather infrared light to help scientists study the universe’s
first galaxies and the atmospheres of alien planets. NASA said the
launch and two subsequent trajectory maneuvers were both precise
and thrifty: Webb will have enough propellant left to maintain its
orbit at L2, a gravitational balance point beyond the Moon, for “sig-
nificantly” more than 10 years. As Science went to press, operators had
unfurled Webb’s kite-shaped, tennis court–size sunshield and tight-
ened its membranes—two of the many mechanical deployments that
have kept astronomers on edge. Later this week, operators will move
the primary and secondary mirrors into their final positions. After
Webb arrives at L2 in late January, it will take another 5 months to
chill its instruments and align the 18 hexagonal segments of the main
mirror before taking a first snapshot.6 7 JANUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6576IN BRIEF
Edited by Jeffrey Brainard