In America, blood means big business. America’s blood makes up 2.69% of U.S. exports, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Since there is no substitute for human blood, demand can be hard to meet. Over the pandemic, the Red Cross announced its first ever national blood shortage crisis. The shortage prompted the FDA’s 12-month blood donation deferral for men who have sex with men to be shortened to three months time. Advocates want the FDA to follow the science and do away with the ban altogether, following countries like Italy and Spain which have done the same. But outside of the clinic, blood plasma becomes a product.
Grifols, CSL Plasma, Takada’s Biolife and Octapharma are huge players in the plasma collection space and donors are compensated for their donation. Increasingly, plasma donations are becoming an economic coping mechanism for low income communities. Watch the video about to learn more about how the weird economy of blood works, why the U.S. is such a major player and what makes plasma so valuable.
“There are still sporadic shortages,” Dr. Claudia Cohn, chief medical officer of the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies, told CNBC.
An early pandemic shortage prompted the FDA to loosen its restriction, which stems from the 1980s AIDS crisis, on accepting blood donations from men who have sex with men. Advocates want the FDA to follow the science and do away with the ban altogether, as have countries such as Italy and Spain.
“There is still government policy that stigmatizes gay and bisexual and other men who have sex with men and carries forward this false notion that there is something inherently diseased about being gay,” Jason Cianciotto, vice president of communications and public policy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, told CNBC.
A 2014 report found that allowing this community equal access to donating blood could increase the blood supply by 2% to 4% every year.
Grifols, CSL Plasma, Takeda’s Biolife and Octapharma are huge players in the blood collection space, particularly plasma, and donors are compensated.
“Plasma donation [centers] are advertising $900 for your first month giving plasma,” Analidis Ochoa, a doctoral candidate studying social work and sociology at the University of Michigan, told CNBC. “Then it goes down. Usually people can make $30 to $50 each time they go.”
In most countries, blood donation for compensation is banned, but not in the United States. So, the U.S. supplies 70% of the world’s plasma, according to the Niskanen Center.
“What myself and colleagues have worked on is mapping out the location of plasma centers and seeing if there’s a correlation between the address of the center and the poverty level of the area. And what we have found is that they are, in fact, overrepresented in high-poverty areas,” Ochoa said.
She said that plasma donation for compensation is becoming an economic coping mechanism.
“The fact that I got rewarded for donating has kept me donating, because I couldn’t make it otherwise. I couldn’t buy gas. I couldn’t pay my car insurance,” Teresa Clark, a plasma donor, told CNBC. “I can make $650 to $700 a month … and that helps a lot when you’re on a fixed income.”
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Why So Many Companies Want U.S. Blood
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They give you 25$ and make 3000 off it
The United States has turned to Sh*t.
I wrote a report for a class in college almost 20 years ago regarding blood donation is a "for profit" scheme, I got an "F" for it. Im so glad that the comments show that the people now know the truth. You may be "donating" your blood free of charge. But hospitals charge patients big money for that "free" donation. I hope that the general public will also start to know the truth that receiving blood is also a scam that doesn't even help the body heal.
Ain’t no way in hell I will sell my blood and I pray that I never need anybody’s blood
Cmon guys pick up the slack 🤣
Y’all remember OJ had aids but got cured 🤔 the rich and government probably have the cure to cancer as well as aids but they’d make more money off “treatments” and all that rather then sell or give out the cure🤷♂️
Am a mother with a sickle cell disease son and am dreading the time he'll be needing blood transfusions
It must be people of color in other states but my town in Indiana was solely white I honestly don't think I saw more then maybe 2 black ppl ever there and $20 isn't worth the strain it puts on yourself so 👏🏻
Donate my blood? So private institutions can sell and profit of of it? How about I sell u my blood
Lmao they take your blood for free to sell it. it's why I don't donate anymore. You want my blood? you buy it.
instead of killing criminals or anybody for that matter, let us just transform them into blood bags.
I stopped donating because they kept messing up my arm
imagine if there was no thumbnail on the video and it was only just the title
Coincidentally my name is Andrea-
Ah, yet another way for corporations to extract money from our health in the USA.
late stage capitalism
And now monkey pox..good reason to worry
Well, at least we're good at producing/exporting something, besides liberal tyranny.
I went through hell during my last surgery because I refused to receive any blood transfusion I'm the event of an emergency. Those doctors hounded the crap put of me for more then an hour.
Vampires
Read “April Fools Day” that may shed some light on why it is a danger for gays to donate. I do not believe it is to discriminate but it is regarding possible health issues.
Lady speaks of the importance of donating and not once refers to donors as "we" or "us".
Honestly my veins are too small
I stopped donating because they never use it on poc’s who needed it and they actually take blood from poc’s more than just the necessary my personal opinion
We sell blood to save a life, we sell sperm, eggs to create a life. 🤔
OMG, America is exporting AIDs.
So I was born in England and live there for the first two years of my life, and came to America in 1991 and with the whole mad cow's disease I'm not allowed to give blood in America cause I lived in England for more then 6 months before 1996, I wish I could give blood in this country but I can't cause of that.
I’m sure if they paid people a respectable amount of money for a whole or double red donation, you would solve the blood shortage and companies and hospitals would still profit. It’s just greed that is the issue.
Vampires!!!!!
I wonder if unvaxxed peoples blood is more in demand?
Yea American slaves. I weight 277 so they take more from me because its actually done by weight. This video did not say that., BTW i donate plasma. The next day is crazy. I went to sleep with my wife at 11pm. Woke up at 8am with her went back to sleep till noon. watched 30 mins of tv at 1230 went bact to sleep and woke up at 3pm that was today!!! I only made 65 dollars for a single donation. In this video the say you make 100 thats not true in chicago
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾this wicked place is done 👏🏾👏🏾
This should be illegal that they setup in poor neighborhoods just to take advantage of those who need money to survive. They have not conducted any studies to see if donating blood per week for 10 , 15, 20 , 30 years can cause any medical problems. What if later we find out it can lead to cancer will these companies pay for medical treatment for those who donated.
You donate and then they give you 50 dollars. Sell it to hospital for 2 to 3 thousands per pint , and the hospital charges the patient or insurance companies 10 – 20 thousands per pint.
I will only donate to a family or close friend.
Russel brand said it best, we have become so useless to the rest of the world that our blood is our greatest offering.
So American's donate blood and our government sale it! Fu!@ you!
Never donating blood again!
Hmm how much can people make from one blood donation? If they do sell it..
Lol
Dont forget blood bags tend to expire after about 42 days and in 6 months' time completely useless which is why theirs always a constant need for supply and constant shortages no matter how much you donate any that's left over gets thrown out and they need more and even more so in case if you have a rarer blood type.
Biological warfare 🤷🏾🤦🏾🤦🏾🤦🏾🤦🏾
All I got was cookies and cranberry juice! So they are paying people for blood and as much as 900 dollars. That’s crazy, the best way is to go colleges and high schools and ask students. Was very healthy and gladly gave however it was still a shock on the body, can’t imagine someone in their 60s giving.
Teresa's situation is sad but I'm almost certain she didn't donate blood back in the day as a young adult. Boomers had it easy, and now that shes dealing with high costs in 2022 like us millennials/gen-z, she talks like those bills she has to pay for are the worst. High-priced bills are one of the many struggles us millennials/gen-z have dealt with. It doesn't surprise me that the other lady tells us we have to pick up the slack lol
The white layer in the middle is not platelets and WBCs. It’s serum separator 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️