Posted on 08/04/2026 8:26:42 AM PDT by fwdude
The American Red Cross has declared a "blood crisis" across the nation.
The organization released a warning about the second-ever blood supply crisis this week after blood donations fell to a four-year summer low.
This decline worsens an emergency shortage that "threatens the availability of lifesaving blood for patients across the country," the organization wrote in a press release.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Type O, type O, to the blood bank I go...
Type O, type O, a blood bank’s life for me...
FD:
1) I gave 13 gallons over the course of my long and unillustrious life, none to the Red Cross; stopped when I began taking blood thinners.
2) One of my last actions before switching from in-class to online college instruction was the day after 9/11, when I offered students a sizable extra credit to donate blood.
3) As befits an intellectual, my blood is type A+ so I don’t have a dog in this thread’s hunt.
Same. My unjabbed type O negative ain’t gonna be cheap
The Danish used to do it right, although I don't know if they still do. Leaving the donation bus you get a cup of juice or a bottle of water in the U.S. - in Denmark you'd get a pint of beer. Rumor had it that it's quite a buzz.
I did the selling plasma thing as a young adult, when I had a stay at home mom/wife as a way to make some money. It takes about 2 hours I recall, but good if you have a book to read, or study.
.I currently am up to 11 gallons of blood donated. It is not to Red Cross, but to a local blood agency. I know they make a bunch on my blood, and I get 2 oreos and a water. But in the current situation, it is a needed product, and it is not like they are taking a kidney.
There are a couple reasons you can't sell blood. 1, it is treated like an organ, it is actual "body stuff", unlike plasma, which is sorta returned to you when they pump you back with saline, or whatever it is. 2. it is to prevent true bad blood drug addicts and such, lying about their health and their blood, to get the money.
The blood donate people have been doing stuff to get around paying. They always have contests to win stuff. Any you can get celebratory t-shirts and other trinkets to sweeten the pot.
I don't mind it tho. 30 minutes in and out, and I'm helping somebody somewhere, so I'm cool with that, even if somebody is making a crapton of money of me.
Im.getting ready to donate but I get paid $70. I might request more at this rate for my unvaxxed O negative blood.
Can’t Madmani make donating a requirement for everyone?
No vax and O Negative here as well. But I had to quit donating due to being sent to Europe in the 90s by the big green machine.
Topped out at a gallon - I started in high school.
My friend worked at a blood donation place. He told me to NEVER give blood, as they would drain me dry. AB Negative is rather rare and a universal serum donor.
I cheerfully took his advice.
I’m unvaxxed O negative but if they want it let them pay a premium price for it.
I’m AB +
Universal recipient and I believe donor.
I’m A- and donate Power Reds 3 times a year. Its considered a double donation as they take the red blood cells but give you back your plasma plus a sterile solution.
I was told a couple years ago that I had never been exposed to CMV and my blood was used for newborns. Can’t argue with helping a newborn. !6 gallons & climbing.
Golf clap for the rare MASH reference.
My brother has hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes iron overload in the blood. He HAS to donate every 5 weeks or so since the excess iron can harm his organs. Iron rich blood is a bonus to any recipient.
Even though it is a verified medical condition, his medical team recommended that he NOT file it under treatment covered by insurance, but just to donated to a blood bank and not tell them why. Free treatment.
“Whole blood has a very short shelf life...”
Agree. But the blood that was transfused into people causing the spread of the disease exacerbated the spread as new cases were discovered. So the regeneration of the virus came from receiving transplant patients. Kind of like the gift that keeps on giving. And common sense determines some down the road diagnosis has surfaced from the original sold virus.
It, also, caused the deaths of people from the illness besides the politicial ramifications attached to the illegal action Clinton took as it cause thousands of people to become infected both domestic and international. And the guy that brockered the deal for Clinton was Vince Foster who was murdered in a park in D.C. while his partner Jerry Parks was murdered on the street in Little Rock and his computer stripped by state gents.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, when Bill Clinton served as the Governor of Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Correction contracted with private companies—primarily Health Management Associates (HMA)—to harvest blood plasma from inmates at the Cummins Unit.The prison program routinely harvested plasma from high-risk inmates, including those with hepatitis and HIV. Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the domestic use of prison blood, the private contractors bypassed this by exporting the plasma abroad. A Canadian broker, Continental Pharma Cryosan Ltd., bought the tainted blood and distributed it to the Canadian Red Cross and international buyers. This resulted in thousands of hemophiliacs contracting HIV and Hepatitis C globally. And Clinton knew what he was doing.
wy69
Interesting problem & solution. With Power Reds, I have the opposite issue where I have to take Iron a week or so before & after my donation. With PR, they’ll only allow me to donate 3 times a year. My next donation date was December but there system caught it and gave me a new eligibility date in January 2027.
Never get tired of Far Side.
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