The Tartan

By Cole Skuse

If you’ve ever donated blood, you’re probably familiar with the constant phone calls that come in for months after your first donation. I know that if I see an unrecognized number, it’s probably Vitalant or American Red Cross calling me to give blood. While it may be annoying at times, them calling me is how I’ve scheduled a few of my donations. However, they shouldn’t have to call and beg me. I constantly get emails that have subject lines saying “URGENT: BLOOD NEEDED” in some form. In a better world, there wouldn’t always be a critical need for blood — more people would just be donating. So what’s stopping people?

The most common problem I have when I donate blood is getting an appointment. The Vitalant donation center in Downtown is only open Mondays and Tuesdays from noon to 7 p.m., which isn’t that convenient for most people. Red Cross donation centers are usually far away or don’t have appointments for the next month. If there’s such an urgent need all the time, shouldn’t donating blood be more accessible?

The U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) agrees, and finally made the recommendation this past year for non-gendered pre-donation questionnaires, along with eliminating the restriction on donations from queer men. I think this is an important first step for blood donation centers to increase the amount of donations they get, but how was this supposed to be advertised? Many people in my life knew about the discriminatory practices surrounding blood donation, but very few knew the guidelines changed. What are the FDA and blood donation clinics supposed to do? Say, “Sorry we discriminated against you for so long, but we really, really want your blood so please pretend like we never discriminated against you!” It’s tough navigating a practice like blood donation that is so important for people who need blood, but has long been filled with discrimination.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey (NBCUS) has particularly insightful data. Between 2019 and 2021, there was a 5.1 percent drop in the number of people who showed up to donate blood (13 million to 12.3 million). A total of 2.01 million people were deferred from giving blood for a variety of reasons, the most common being low hemoglobin or low hematocrit (820,000 women, 207,000 men).

There’s a lot of interesting information in the report, and I highly recommend at least checking it out to get an understanding of the blood donation system and how it works. To me, the most concerning part of the report is the drops in donations from those in the age range 16 to 24 years old. The age group of 16- to 18-year-olds saw a 60.7 percent drop in donations between 2019 and 2021, and the age group of 19- to 24-year-olds saw a 31.9 percent drop between the same years. Age groups older than 25 all saw increases. Some sources attribute this loss to high school blood drives post-pandemic or the FDA’s 2015 increase to the hemoglobin level required to donate blood.

Last April, what finally drove people to donate blood was a Snoopy shirt from the American Red Cross. The Red Cross saw 50 percent more traffic to their donations page over a collaboration T-shirt. Wild! However, it seems like none of the donation organizations paid much attention to this trend — people don’t care that Peyton Manning says to give blood. They want free stuff, not an extremely slim chance to win tickets to the Super Bowl.

When I donated blood recently, I got an offer for an 18 ounce insulated tumbler with the words “Hero Fuel” plastered on the front or 200 bonus points I could put toward getting a gift card (a $5 gift card is 775 points). I was tempted to just take the 200 points because I don’t care about some tumbler that’s probably going to sit in the back of my cabinet for a few years before I donate it to Goodwill or something. But put Snoopy on it? I’m using that every day!

It’s not as though these organizations don’t have the funds necessary to have these partnerships. The American Red Cross does other things beside blood donations, but the top 16 employees made more than $7.5 million combined for calendar year 2021, and had $134 million in excess funds that year. Vitalant focuses on blood research and donations; they took in $156 million in excess funds in 2021, and $10.3 million in excess funds in 2022, but paid their top 14 employees over $9.1 million. You’re telling me there’s no better use of these funds?

In the end, we have to rely on nonprofits like the Red Cross and Vitalant to set up blood donation clinics to meet the need for blood. While this is the case, it’s also the responsibility of those who can donate to ensure no appointment goes unfilled and that they make an occasional donation. I don’t know about you, but if I were to ever need a blood transfusion, I sure hope I can count on the blood being available.