Yes I remember the outbreak well.
The streets were full of shambling, unhuman creatures.
It started of slowly, just a few hundred, then it was thousands, then millions, and then civilisation, for the few survivors, broke down completely on these islands.
I think that the U.S. was right to equate the death toll with that of Malaria worldwide.
And it didn’t do the American beef ranching industry any harm either.
The US isn’t alone in this - the threat of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is significant enough that Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Canada, and other countries have instituted similar bans. There is no blood test for CJD.
Of course the UK doesn’t institute a similar ban, else most of the population would be ineligible to donate blood and you’d be facing massive shortages. Looks like the only ones banned are those who definitely received or are unsure if they received blood since 1980.
I work in for Canadian Blood Services. We use a fairly standardized questionaire that the AABB sets for blood banks, so while it may not be identical, it is fairly similar to the one the American Red Cross uses. Our Record of Donation asks everyoneif in the past six months if they have had sex with someone who’s background they do not know. This means, anyone who is answering honestly and who has had a one night stand, would be deferred. It has also meant I have told people who have been monogamous and married for 6 years but never had a “tell me about your past” talk with their husband/ wife that presumably you now know your spouse well enough that you are indeed eligible to donate. Sometimes there is a judgment call on the part of the screening nurse.
Canadian Blood Services defers people based on high risk activities. Some are temporary, like travel to a malaria risk area, a tattoo or piercing, or even being on certain medications. Some deferrals are indefinite like MSM, being born in or living in certain areas of Africa, having had most types of cancer, having lived in vCJD areas for longer than a certain length of time.
Recently Canadian Blood Services has started to investigate a change in the MSM policy looking at a deferral period of less than 10 years. However it will still need to get approval from Health Canada for any change to the policy, so this will still be a while until implementation. Any changes in policy regarding collection undergoes very careful scrutiny and moves at times at glacial speeds. Heck we are still using Windows XP as our operating system.
Read the link and it said that we couldn’t donate sperm.
Bastards !
The Whitehouse incident was ages ago !
Well, no, not everyone can. Some of us are excluded for medical reasons. The stomach/intestinal surgery I had means that I can’t replace the lost iron in my body fast enough to remain healthy. I’d end up needing IV iron transfusions (a 5 week process) after donating, for example. I’ve been very specifically told by my doctors NOT to donate.
Yes, actually, it DOES hurt for most people to get stuck in the arm with the needle. Granted, it’s a minor and transitory pain, but saying “it doesn’t hurt” when, in fact, it does for the vast majority of folks does your cause no good service.
And while it may not make you feel “weak or sick” it certainly can have that effect on some people. When I volunteered for the red cross (at a donor center and at past blood drives) we always had a certain number of people pass out, feel dizzy, etc. Again, this is usually a minor and transitory problem (barring head injuries from falling) but saying it doesn’t happen when, in fact, it does again does your cause no good service.
There is more than one way to save a life. There are also a LOT of people who have legitimate medical reasons not to donate, which are no one else’s business. When, in the past, I’ve been involved in blood donation I’ve encouraged people who couldn’t or didn’t want to donate actual blood to donate time and/or effort, as all such blood drives here use volunteers for various duties, and welcome donations of food and beverages for those who have donated. By assisting in the collection of the mostly commonly donated organ (blood is an organ, even if it’s liquid) they, too, are helping to save lives.
Good for you. This is not, however, a universal experience.
It often has nothing to do with bravery. As I said, people have real reasons not to donate. They do not owe you, me, or anyone else an explanation.
I used to donate regularly. Now I don’t. Why I don’t is not something I have to justify to anyone. If I have any regrets it was that I had a goal of donating sufficiently to replace all the blood used by my mother during her heart surgeries, as she was medically excluded from returning the favor. I was not able to reach that goal, but I did my best and it’s a pretty minor regret in the larger scheme of things.
If someone can’t donate for whatever reason, I’m not knocking them.
All I’m asking is that people who CAN donate, but maybe have been too busy in the past, or haven’t thought about it, maybe think about giving it a go.
And yes I did try to ameliorate peoples fears about it, I would not be stunned with amazement if some have not tried to donate in the past because in their own minds they’ve built up the negative effects before the event.
Something which I also do not condemn, as I had exactly the same fears myself before I first did it many years ago.
If the effects were that bad then I might have done it once but not repeatedly.
I am definitely no self sacrificing saint, thats for sure.
And yes I agree again that people can help in many other ways other then donating themselves, by for example encouraging others to do so.
And showing that its not as scary as they might think.
In the U.K. there are far too few donors.
This is not a matter of opinion, its a matter of fact.
And one day we’re not going to make up the shortfall.
With the obvious results.