- cross-posted to:
- collapse@sopuli.xyz
- cross-posted to:
- collapse@sopuli.xyz
A blood supply shortage in the US has reached a “crisis” level, according to the American Red Cross, which says it is the second time in its 150-year history that levels have been this low.
Factors including wildfires and extreme heat have combined to create the current situation, Dr Courtney Lawrence, who works with the American Red Cross, told the BBC.
Supply levels dropped by a quarter just last month. The crisis has struck during summer, when the amount of blood needed by hospitals typically increases.
That is because of an increased number of car accidents and more people spending time outdoors, resulting in more injuries that require blood transfusions, Lawrence said.
isnt there still a shit ton of restrictions for people, making its extremely inconvenient, plus the sites that does the donations are very low in each city. like you have std, or taking medication, or had sex,etc.
even though they "soft-lifted the resitrction from gay men, there still potential for discrimination.
It’s wild, they do “batch testing” with samples from many different people in one go, and if anything turns up positive, they discard everyone’s donations. I used to donate plasma, but a batch test revealed somebody with hepatitis. I immediately went to a doctor to get tested and it came up negative. Unfortunately, due to having my sample in the batch test, I was already deferred from ever donating anything in the US again.
Random people have told me there are ways to get back on the donor list, but that’s not what I was told by professionals. So here I am, with perfectly fine blood, barred from donating because I happened to donate at the same time as somebody who was sick. Such a great system.
they test for all the STDs, i assume they meant hep a and B, which are the most common test to be positive if you been vaccinated. they likely test for Hep C as well.