I was already scheduled to give blood tomorrow when I got a notice of critical need. The Red Cross tells me that the storms, plus the government shutdown meant that they collected less blood. I was surprised that the shutdown had had this effect, as I had heard nothing of this, so I looked into it. Local news stations all over the country carried stories with exactly this theme: Critical shortage. Storms. Government shutdown. Looking deeper I found that the shutdown piece was because there had been blood drives scheduled at federal agencies and offices around the country which had to be cancelled. This was less than 20% of the problem, but it does at least register. I was annoyed at this, because moving them would have netted at least some blood, and the increase in inconvenience did not seem great. When you commit to do something, you do it.
I then rethought that a lot of people are not so much determined as hoping to fit it in, and they could be likely to drop out altogether for this round if schedules didn't match up. That's fair. It also occurred to me that if the anti-Trump people got motivated to give blood even though they hadn't before or were sporadic, that's a good thing. If liberals gave blood at the same rate as conservatives we would have no shortages. (Arthur Brooks, Who Really Cares?). This despite there being a few categories of more-conservatives who are unable to give - military, missionaries, those who travel abroad for business. So if that group increases their giving, it's good.
Trump-haters unite. The Donald has disrupted blood donation to critical levels and you all need to come donate blood as an act of protest.
1 comment:
I used to donate regularly, until I was prescribed Finasteride, and that's the first on the list of "Do not donate if you take any of these meds" in my Red Cross area.
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