Changes to the requirements for donating blood coupled with the pandemic have led to a drop-off in the number of teens and young adults donating blood.
It was a white T-shirt bearing the likeness of Snoopy wearing shades and leaning effortlessly against the iconic American Red Cross logo that prompted a surge in blood donations in the spring of 2023.
“Be cool. Give blood,” the shirt urged. The message — on young people, anyway — was effective. More than 70,000 people under age 35 responded to the call, rolling up their sleeves and giving blood in exchange for the coveted tees.
The need for blood is urgent. Over the holidays, the Red Cross had 7,000 fewer units of blood available than were needed by hospitals, said Dr. Eric Gehrie, the executive medical director of the American Red Cross. The organization speculated it would need about 8,000 additional donations every week in January to ensure that hospitals are fully supplied, he added.
I know it is bad but i completely understand why.
A group of people who cannot afford health care and are at risk of crippling debt from medical issues are reluctant to donate blood.
Especially when they sell it?
Exactly.
Scenario: A person regularly donates blood for years and receives no benefit from it.
Later they need to receive transfusions due to surgery or medical emergency.
They are charged several thousand dollars for the transfusions, the same amount as a person who has never donated.
What is their motivation to donate again?
There is very little.
I wonder if the same trend exists here in the UK or other countries with national health service.
I must say paying people to give blood seems like a horrible idea, it incentivizers people with reasons not to give blood such as illness or drug use to lie. Sadly testing and screening isn’t very effective so it would likely cause problems.
I’m from a country with universal health care that is paid via a tax levy that all pay.
We are not paid to donate but we are also provided transfusions for no charge as well.
We do not have the issues mentioned in this article.
We (India) have free healthcare for the poor and subsidised healthcare for everyone else. Blood will therefore be free / discounted at a government hospital, but private hospitals can charge money. Donors must not be paid (including gifts, coupons, etc.) in either case, but some hospitals give a card or token saying you get priority if you ever need blood at that hospital.
Being a selfless person and knowing you’ve helped someone?
Yes, the warm glow of altruistic service to the community is a strong one but it is often hard to maintain in the face of looming bankruptcy due to medical debt.
We have also been taught that everything comes at a price and everything is a product. Even ourselves. I can see why being asked to give away something for free in this context just seems bizarre, as necessary as it is.
In a society that bleeds us for every cent it can get its claws on, why would we be expected to turn around and donate anything?
We’ve been trained that nothing happens without payment… if you want my blood, make an offer.
Why? So when we need it they can sell it back to us for $10k/liter?
Seriously. It’s a fucking racket. Gimmie a slice of that cheese.
This is why I “donate” plasma instead. Still helping people, can do it more often, and my first month after a long break gave me $600 in 6 visits
It’s gonna drop down to maybe $150-250 in the next month but it’ll still be at least $25 for an hour out of my day twice a week.
Would be nice if there were no monetary system so it weren’t so exploitative but hey, I’ll keep dreaming
It’s always young people who’re asked to step up. Again and again. Save the environment whilst corporations fuck us; care for the aging population; buy a house and contribute to the economy; fight in proxy wars over a politician’s pride. And now it’s give blood whilst still being charged extortionate medical costs. Why don’t the older generations step up for a change?
Sure, I’ll donate when I’m not working 70 hour weeks and actually have some time to.
they told me I’m a plague-ridden queer and that I’m not welcome. Happy to accommodate.
Pay me. Well. This is like restaurants paying $9 complaining that nobody wants to work. If I go to the ER and get an aspirin it’s like $3k. But they want my blood for free. How much would it cost if I needed a pint or two of blood in the ER?
They often do offer gift cards. If you were serious about what you said you’d know that
Maybe in some areas. I’ve donated many times and never received anything. I haven’t donated in the last three years though. I’m officially in the pay me camp now. I can’t afford healthcare.
Area and time dependent yes, I’d get them occasionally before red cross spam calling me chased me off.
Weren’t gay men barred entirely? Yeah, I was considered “high risk” by category all those years despite being squeaky clean. Big regrets now, huh.
I’ll do it but it will cost you 1,000 a month or 10,500 a year… And I might not go every month…but you still have to pay.
We live in a subscription based society after all.
Bloody hilarious
Did you just
The young people also need free medical care and education. No wonder number of donors is dropping. When you are suppose to give something away they plea your goodness of the heart and helping others. When you need transfusions it’s several thousands of dollars thank you.
pay $98 to see my GP to write a therapeutic phlebotomy order so I can then go to Red Cross to have them take my blood and throw it straight in the bin.
My blood has too much iron so it can’t be donated.
In my 20s I donated every 8 weeks on the dot. My iron levels were low enough for my blood to be accepted and the regular donations kept them within a healthy range for me and a healthy range for the blood recipient. But now days I can’t seem to maintain low enough levels for 8 weeks to be able to donate.
The kicker is that I’m still on the mailing lists so I get multiple texts a week asking me to come in and donate.
After the therapeutic phlebotomy you can’t do a normal blood donation for 8 weeks even if your levels are fine, but my iron is usually already too high by week 6, so at no point do I have the opportunity to donate. I’ve tried getting two TP orders back to back so I can go around the 5 or 6 week mark, but my levels aren’t high enough so I can only get the TP orders every 12 weeks or so anyway.
Other than iron, my blood is fine, and I’m a rare and in demand blood type too, I wish there was some way they could filter the iron out.
I’m sick of paying money to have my blood thrown away only to get Texts from Red Cross asking for my blood to be donated.
I do more than enough for my privilege level. I’m not doing more until my level of freedom is higher than “if someone at work doesn’t like me, I’m kicked out of decent living”.
I can’t even afford health insurance, I need to keep all my blood inside me.
I’m in Canada, but my province also has a shortage of blood donations except… they got rid of the blood donation clinics in a bunch of cities in 2015, including my own, saying they could easily get the province’s needs met in major population centers and there was no need for it? Just bizarre.
Can’t smoke weed
Yes you can. You just can’t donate if your usage affects your usage affects your comprehension.
My usage definitely affects my usage.
I’ll donate when I can afford to get treatment for the condition that makes me anemic.
