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.
Literally all bad things lead back to trump… Severe cuts to federal funding sources that allowed for more drives, more personnel, offered incentives, funded training education programs to spread awareness. Head of the snake also lacks empathy and promotes the same in future generations.
I’m o negative and I donated blood once. I shit you not, they called me hundreds of times after that. They called me once or twice a day for months.
I asked them to change my phone number, to remove my phone number, to please stop calling. I told them that I had died, that I’d taken up heroin as a hobby, that I’d begun having gay sex. They kept calling.
I will never donate blood again.
O negative is one of the most valuable blood types. So they obviously want it.
I understand that but if my reward for donating is my phone constantly ringing with calls from unknown numbers, which then use a recording to leave voicemails, which I have to dial in to delete, I’m out. My good deed has been sufficiently punished. I have learned from my mistake.
We donated blood (O+) at every possible interval to help the community and then when we were gay one of the doctors had to inform me that we marked down that we had sexual contact with another man not thinking about it. Even though we explained it was with a condom and we didn’t have any std, we asked what if we had sex with a woman? He said it wouldn’t have been an issue. Sheet that we were denied. Then we eventually came out trans and was sure that now we could probably get around it but alas that was also not allowed.
Never had an std, blood borne illness/disease, were fit as a fiddle blood/body wise (our disabilities do not affect that) and our bi yearly donation hasn’t been done in 8 or so years.
Hopefully now in EU they’ll let us donate blood again, we do care about people and the good we can do, even if it’s a little.
Edit: we can donate blood in Spain! Yippeeee!!!
In the US they’ve changed those questions.
Have they? What it saying now?
I used to donate platelets every two weeks, but I haven’t gone in a few years. The last time I went was beginning of 2024; at that time they still asked all the same questions.
If it’s still asking the same questions by then, then we wouldn’t have had the chance to see the new rules before moving.
Donating has always been on my to-do list, but I just never made the time. I think I did it once 25 years ago in high school.
I finally made the time about a month ago, and they made it so easy I told them to keep a standing appointment every two months (the maximum.) Found out I’m O-, so I feel like I’m doing some real good.
If you’re O- you’re going to be begged to donate for the rest of your life now
An O- friend of mine donated blood ~10 years ago before learning he can get paid for plasma donations. 10 years of regular plasma donations (and no blood donations), he still gets monthly calls asking him to donate blood
Gotta make ends meet though. Free cookies and juice don’t pay rent
I thought that O- has undesirable plasma.
Oh well, for me at least, I feel good about the donation for donation’s sake.
Morally it’s better for O-s to donate whole blood than plasma. Plasma donation is great but it’s usually for developing medicines and prefers AB+, while whole blood is more likely to go to people in immediate need of blood and prefers O-.
I’ve done both and personally prefer giving blood to plasma. Plasma takes so much longer, has worse phlebotomists (they damaged one of my veins) and is just a generally more depressing environment
That said, if it’s all the same, give where the shortage is
My mom is an ER nurse and she said a few times a year they get a batch of defective bags. You try to use them and they just burst, like they’re sealed wrong. So that sucks.
Article says
“Supplies of every blood type are currently needed, but especially O positive.”
I thought O Negative was the universal donner.
Most donor blood is O+
O- is great because it is (almost always*) usable by anyone of any blood type, but only like 7% of people have it, so the overall supply is not very high and it’s typically reserved for emergencies and O- patients.
O+ can be given to most people because most people have O+ blood. Something like 30-40% of people have O+ and can thus receive O+ donations. All the Rh+ blood types can receive O+ blood too, which accounts for the vast majority of people. A+ is something like 25-30% of the population and B+ is like 10%. Altogether, O+, A+, B+, and AB+ make up probably about 75-85% of the population, and all of those people can receive O+ blood donations, thus the supply of O+ blood is the most-needed most of the time.
Obviously they also want as much O- as possible too. Hell, they want all of them all the time except AB type blood from females.
*Blood typing is actually a lot more complicated than A/B antigen and Rh factor, so some people with certain antigens need very specific donor blood or autologous blood that they donate themselves prior to a procedure or whatnot.
Great reply Thanks
What is different about AB type from females? That describes me and I’ve almost earned my 2 gallon pin, the ladies in the blood mobile are always happy to see me.
AB type females can develop dangerous antibodies during pregnancy, and so even if you’ve never been pregnant (or think you’ve never been pregnant) there is still statistically an additional risk because there’s no good way to know for certain whether you’ve has ever been pregnant. The tests and screening for blood antibodies are expensive. Because of the heightened risk, taking AB positive female blood can be more expensive and complicated than it’s worth, so many blood banks just don’t actively encourage AB females to donate as often. There is still use for any kind of blood, even if it is used for research or if they use the RBC and waste the plasma. They certainly would never turn you away, but they also won’t regularly pester you the way they will an O- or O+ donor
AB+ male donor plasma is compatible with all blood types (universal plasma donor) and so they really want that. They call it liquid gold
I don’t know enough about blood banking specifically but it’s possible that there are some blood banks who have better capacity to screen any female AB plasma for HLA antibodies and so they don’t care as much. Idk. I just know as an AB+ female, my local blood bank was like “Don’t donate unless we tell you we need it”
Fascinating, cool to know, thank you. I will ask about it next time i donate.
I’m due to give. I should make an appointment.
I want my blood to go to people fighting for their lives after an accident, not to vampires in Hollywood.
Why would I donate blood. chances are a nazi whore will get my blood because his feefees are hurt even if a brown or lgbtq person needs it more due to bleeding out.
You would rather let the innocent die than see a guilty person receive a gift?
I’d rather see every filthy nazi and maga) bastard in America dead. if that means a few thousand innocent people die too. so be it. sacrifice the few to save the world.
Be careful when fighting monsters that you yourself do not become a monster…
If I can guarantee that people will to be too scared to be pedophiles, rapists, nazis, and filthy zionists… Let the world call me monster.
There is no greater sacrifice for the safety of real humans… than to become the monster that true evil fears. And don’t deceive yourself, for Nazis, Pedophiles, rapists, and zionists are true evil.
If demons truly walk among us, they wear the faces of Israeli rapists and MAGA pedophiles.
