Blood donations have fallen to catastrophic levels. Experts say young people need to step up.
Blood donations have fallen to catastrophic levels. Experts say young people need to step up.
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.
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?
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.
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?
Did you bother to even read the (very short) article? Basically the whole thing is about how people age 40-65 donate more than half of all blood in the country, and that the significant declines in blood donations has been in the under 30 demographic.
With less blood donors, blood becomes more expensive and therefore increases medical costs. As the most generous donation demographics continue to age, those that can still qualify to give blood decreases.
I don't think they were talking about how older generations need to donate more. My take on the article and their comment was that younger generations are being asked to "step up" and help the country/people, but in return get shafted on life.
House and food prices doubled over the past 2 years while pay stagnated. Medical bills soar without any signs of universal healthcare being implemented in my lifetime. Student loan debt was temporarily deferred, but now might even need to be reversed with interest. The most the Red Cross can do is say, "We'll give you a shirt if you donate! And maybe a chance to win Super Bowl tickets!" But in return hospitals can charge $219 for the blood.
Overall it's demoralizing. While people should donate because it's needed, it's just a symptom of a larger problem of young people (adults participating in society though) being expected to keep giving without having their voice heard.
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
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
I've donated for decades in multiple states and the closest thing to payment I've ever gotten was a $5 off coupon for Bass Pro Shop.
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've donated only couple of years and then decided to give up since hospitals, even with social insurance, sell my blood to other hospitals and are making a bank. I'll happily donate to whoever needs my silly AB+ type, but giving it to others to sell, I want some of the benefits.
Am not sure what TP is, but it sucks they would just throw the blood out. Can't they at least extract plasma out of it or something?
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
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".
Used to donate, would get about 15 calls a day asking me to come donate the next day. Not sure if daily blood donations is sustainable.
Exactly this, my job has called in that donation bus a few times. I always go because its an excuse to not work for an hour and I get a cookie.
After the first report came in I got some very helpful blood info. After that it got frustrating, as donating blood is very much in support of the public good, but the org that handles it will turn around and sell it (as part of someones hospital bill), then spam you with emails and calls asking for more...
I donated blood once because I needed to know my blood type and it was the cheapest way to find out. The Red Cross sent harassing phone calls for YEARS after that. It stopped after I told them I just returned from a three week trip to Mali.
The day my mother passed, she received at least 3 bags of blood. All it brought her was a few unconscious hours. I don't have the words to describe how overwhelmingly thankful i was that day and still am for those individuals who gave their blood to my mother.
And if they charged anyone for that blood, those three people who donated should have been compensated fairly.
If the blood was free, then no compensation is needed.
I'll donate when I can afford to get treatment for the condition that makes me anemic.
I can't even afford health insurance, I need to keep all my blood inside me.
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.
Well as a gay they never wanted my blood before so I'm just going to go ahead and keep it.
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.
If they would let gay people donate it would help a lot
Now I have to tell my coworkers I can't give blood because I keep having anal sex every 3 months.
Guess I missed that.
They user to do blood drives in the office but they kept laying off people that managed it....
I used to donate a lot and dealt with the harassing phone calls and because I wanted to do my part.
After a series of bad donations where my arm looked like a crime scene, I finally got someone who knew what they were doing with the needle. I remarked how glad I was they got it on the first try and mentioned how bad it usually was. The technician told me with a straight face "oh yeah most of the others are butchers, I'd never donate here". I donate a lot less now.
Red Cross and other orgs if you're reading this, go undercover at your own facilities and you'll see why fewer people are donating.
Why are we even considering still donating to these money hungry pieces of shit anyway? Do we not have the technology to donate at your local hospital?
Not a stab at you, OP, just trying to avoid the trainwreck that is the red cross.
I've never seen any advertisement for donating at the hospital and my quick internet searches aren't pulling up anything for my state.
I did find a local blood bank though which might be a better option.
I've tried donating, but every time i go they ask so many questions. Things like, "who's blood is that?" and "why is it in a bucket?".
I'm just trying to help, gosh...
Continued streak of tone deaf conversation of the world after the start of the pandemic. The world has changed fundamentally, but maybe if we pretend hard enough that people just need to "step up"...
I donate blood regulary and I actually enjoy the process. Where I donate they are all very kind and afterwards I can sit in a room with endless food and drinks. I even get a little bit of money for my troubles. Would recommend just giving it a try. If it's not for you nobody blames you if you never do it again.
Edit: An extra is that they check your blood for a lot of stuff and if they find something you know very early and can treat it easily. Free blood checkup.
Where is this that you get paid for blood donation? That sounds like a reasonable thing to do
Im donating at a hospital in germany. A plus is that they only use my blood to actually help people in that hospital and don't sell any of it to big pharma.
Make donations of blood give you healthcare funny bucks - we can spend them on life saving procedures or loot boxes!
Hmm let's see. I constantly get harassed multiple times a day to do it. Even though I'm underweight and can't donate. Ive told them this. Even when I met the weight requirement donating only caused me trouble. Last 2 times I donated they had to hold the needle in my arm because their phlebotomists suck. Im not a hard stick. I can literally set an IV myself but its not like they'll let me. If I had not gotten a full unit they would have thrown it out. Im not going through a ton of effort to throw it out. I have to work and given my past issues dont like donating on days I don't have off.
On top of that, the time before that they sent me to the ER because I was still lightheaded and couldn't stand after waiting an hour. I got to pay an ER and ambulance bill for the privelege of giving my blood away for free. Its not surprising ive soured on the idea. Donaters take on all the risk in our for profit system and get none of the profit.
I used to donate blood pre-transition, but my first try after transition I got told that I would need to "have my medicines approved" by some home office for...being on testosterone. Literally no difference between my blood and a cis man's. Called the office on the number provided. They never answered. I left a message. They never called back.
:(
Didn't they used to pay people for plasma? Has that gone away or have the rates not caught up to inflation?
Incentivise it
Pay them for it. How much does one get billed for a pint of blood?
Even if I could, I wouldn't because I absolutely do not like medical needles at all.
Let the Boomers die.
Fuck you. My grandma is actively dying right now and we're doing everything that we can to stop that. She faced domestic abuse practically her entire life. Despite this, she worked hard through it and is still fighting hard to live on. Sure, she might not have been the nicest person alive, but she sure as hell doesn't deserve shit like this from losers like you. Go fuck yourself with a cactus.
And the millennials and zoomers who need blood can just go die with them
You all are morally repugnant and vile.
ITT: charity is wrong and stupid. Don't help, just whinge.
Wow I never realized the US healthcare system was a charity from reading all the articles about how many Americans it drives to bankruptcy and poverty while earning billions of dollars in profits for a small number of already egregiously wealthy people!
I know socialized healthcare exists too, but the article is from the US so I feel it's fair game to criticize it. Just because it does good sometimes doesn't excuse or justify the horrific stuff it does too.
Whole lot of people who clearly felt personally targeted by this article lmao
It's okay to just say that you don't want to. You don't actually need to justify every single decision you make with systemic and social forces, or like, some weird kind of spite.