WASHINGTON (TND) — Right now, the American Red Cross is experiencing an emergency blood shortage, reporting the lowest donations in two decades.
The National Desk spoke with Red Cross Divisional Chief Medical Officer Dr. Baia Lasky about the dire situation and what is ahead.
Over the last 20 years, the number of people donating blood to the Red Cross has fallen by about 40%.
As for the reason for the decline, Lasky said it is a good question, but that "we don't know."
"What we do know is that there are just fewer donors coming out," Lasky said. "We know that during the winter months it can be particularly challenging because, you know, we have the winter storms that inhibits our ability to run drives.
With fewer donors, Lasky said the Red Cross also knows illness plays a factor.
"But we know that there are other seasonal illness like the flu and COVID, which can just compound the situation," Lasky said.
Lasky said right now the Red Cross is recognizing National Blood Donor Month.
"So this is in recognition of our donors that have been donating and do donate. And we're so grateful for those," Lasky said. "But this is really a plea to the to the public, to the community that this is, blood donation is, so desperately needed right now. And every two seconds, someone in the country is going to need blood. And it's really the blood on the shelves today that's going to save lives, especially when there are emergencies."
Lasky said there is a blood type they need more than others at the moment.
"Type O blood donors are always in greater need. O-negative is universal, which means it can be transfused to anybody. And O-positive is nearly universal, and it's the most commonly transfused blood type," Lasky said. "Course, we will take anybody but O donors are in particular need and also platelet donors. And really right now we are seeing blood and platelets leave the shelves, going to hospitals faster than the donations that are coming in."
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dropped many restrictions in terms of who can donate. They have also introduced a new assessment tool.
"So, yes, the FDA has made some changes to make the blood donation process more inclusive. It has moved away from eliminating time-based referrals based on sexual orientation and has moved towards a more individualized risk assessment," Lasky said. "However, this is not something that we ask now that the questionnaire has changed. We don't really know how this is going to impact blood donation."
"What we do know is that, you know, we are falling to critically low levels and we have even had to limit distributions of some of our most commonly transfused blood types, which is very concerning for the patients who are in need of blood," Lasky said.
