My brother needed blood after a minor operation - doctor told him he’d prefer if my brother took a LONG recovery rather than a blood transfusion - said there are new letters of hepatitis being discovered every day and the screening tests don’t pick up the new varieties.
Took about six weeks for him to recover.
I think the smartest thing you can do, if you’re having a non-emergency operation that requires you’ll need blood, is to stockpile your own beforehand.
Not sure why this isn’t a business model. Or is it? I dunno!
As a Universal Donor, I used to be a HUGE blood contributor to The American Red Cross. My Dad was, too - he had a number of ‘Gallon Club’ pins and awards.
Not anymore. How can BLOOD be something that now has to be ‘politically correct?’ Shouldn’t SAFETY of the blood supply come FIRST for something like that? Ugh!