# Will I ever be able to give blood?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 12, 2012, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991 "2012-07-12T12:21:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991/21 "2012-07-12T21:31:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Honestly, I agree with **Wendall** here. I, too, am technically not allowed to donate blood because I spent more than 3 months in the UK during the whole vCJD thing. I used to give blood a lot before, but now I don’t. I don’t blame them for minimizing risk and do something else to give back to the community.
I’ve spent my entire adult life giving back to the community. Sure it’s usually in a professional capacity but I could have found easier ways to earn a living. I’m all for minimizing the risk. Understandable. But as confused said there does not appear to be a risk. Europe is still full of people. I understand that the incubation period (if that’s even the right term for this disease) is not fully understood. But in 30 years of European blood transfusions there have been no cases. How long before they can say it really isn’t a risk?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991/22 "2012-07-13T03:43:55Z")
Confused dart cum’s link is not about thousands of people being infected currently. Read it. It’s mostly about one man who in 1983, back when donated blood was not as well inspected, got hepatitis C from a donation. It says that 4,300 people were infected in the 1970’s and 1980’s in the U.K. It says nothing about that blood coming from the U.S.
So you can’t donate blood, Loach. Neither can I, since I lived in England for three years from 1987 to 1990. If you want to do something for humanity, get an M.D./Ph.D. and become an expert on infection from blood donations. Perhaps you can do the definitive study on how well Mad Cow Disease can be spread by donations. Until then, what you’re saying is that you know more about the spread of infection in blood donations, even though you have no degrees in the subject. There are enough blood donations to supply the current requirements, so there is no need for your blood or mine.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991/23 "2012-07-13T05:24:47Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#):
>
> I don’t know what they do in the UK since virtually 100% of their donors would fail this test… apparently they don’t worry as much about it as in other countries.
The UK restriction is on people like me who have received a blood product since 1980.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-i-ever-be-able-to-give-blood/627991/24 "2012-07-13T05:54:27Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> I’ve spent my entire adult life giving back to the community. Sure it’s usually in a professional capacity but I could have found easier ways to earn a living. I’m all for minimizing the risk. Understandable. But as confused said there does not appear to be a risk. Europe is still full of people. I understand that the incubation period (if that’s even the right term for this disease) is not fully understood. But in 30 years of European blood transfusions there have been no cases. How long before they can say it really isn’t a risk?
Your blood is not needed, and there are other ways you can continue to give back to the community. A dear friend of mine died from the tainted blood supplied by the Red Cross when they didn’t consider the risk great enough. No risk is acceptable, because there is no shortage of blood, and yours won’t be missed.
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