Sort of, but unlike a vaccine, any protection would only be temporary. A vaccine trains people's immune systems to make their own antibodies against a target germ. The plasma infusion approach would give people a temporary shot of someone else's antibodies that are short-lived and require repeated doses. Still, if FDA agrees, a second study would give antibody-rich plasma infusions to certain people at high risk from repeated exposures to COVID-19, such as hospital workers or first responders, said Dr. Liise-anne Pirofski of New York's Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. That also might include nursing homes when a resident becomes ill, hoping to give the other people in the home some protection, she said. We need both things desperately, Pirofski said. We need to break the cycle of transmission and we also need to help people who are ill.