Oh, come on people!

[subplotkudzu]

I had always intended this journal to be primarily gaming related with some (hopefully) amusing life anecdotes, but I feel the need to rant for a moment. This quote is from an Explainer article in yesterday's Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2149359/)

(The centers in Iowa, for example, are able to collect from 12 percent of the population, compared to a national average of 3 percent.)

3%?

3 goddamn percent?!?

This five years after people were banging on the doors of the blood rives insisting it was their moral and religious duty to donate? Speaking as arrogant git who just got his 5 gallon pin, I'm trying to figure out what the problem is here. I know the article I'm quoting from is focusing on the cost factors of blood donation and transfer, but I can't be the only on to find this depressing. Surely we can do better than this.

Comments

[kriz1818.livejournal.com]

Well, you've now reminded *me* that my current schedule would allow me to take a day off to recuperate from the exhaustion that giving blood inflicts on me!

[evynrude.livejournal.com]

I haven't given in years for the same reason as you. I am useless after they take my blood. But, seeing as I'm on vacation and have trouble doing nothing this might kill two birds with one stone :)

Although, a month or so ago when I fist heard about the shortage, I went looking for a place to donate and I couldn't find one anywhere in CT on my day off.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Mind you, my complaint is not just about people not giving blood. With that 12% access that Iowa pulls they're able to supply blood to other states: we don't need 100% of the population giving blood because we don't need that much of it (I figure 8% of eligible donation nationwide would be adequate). Sure, we need more than we're getting and more people should donate, but that's only part of the problem.

The rest of the problem is the lack of infrastructure and cultural buy in for this. We all know we need blood supplies - anyone who has watched an episode of ER has figured that out. But we don't realize the cost involved for getting that blood collected, stored and distributed to the places that need it, which is almost as bad as not getting around to donating it.

I think part of my earlier rantage was a 9/11 anniversary aftershock. Suddenly people who had never donated before felt the need to do so, to do something. Such people also donated huge amounts of money to the Red Cross. Then, when the Red Cross tried to use some of that money for infrastructure improvements so they'd be better prepared for the next disaster (one that might have survivors where they'd be more equipped to assist) they were attacked for it. Infrastructure be damned, all of that money had to go to this event's survivors.

I certainly don't have anything against the 9/11 survivors, but that was a bad policy - there were a lot of other organizations stepping up to help them, while only the Red Cross can do what the Red Cross does. And when the next big crisis hit (hell, it wasn't even Katrina, it was the triple threat hurricane season in Florida, but Katrina sure stands out too) the Red Cross was again attacked, this time for not doing as much as they could have. Ya'see, their infrastructure hadn't been improved.

Yes, all of us have to give a little more of themselves (in the case of blood donation, literally), but we also have to start preparing for the next problem when the opportunity presents itself. And when it comes to an emergency management agency, there is always a next problem. It comes every month when blood supplies run low because we don't have the funds or the people in place to collect, transport and store it, and it comes every time something really bad happens. This isn't a pessimistic preparation for some possible doom, but an acknowledgment of what we need to do and have done.

[candorite.livejournal.com]

Well, unfortunately, I haven't been able to donate for YEARS due to medications in the blood stream. However, that may soon change. Hooray!!!!

[evynrude.livejournal.com]

I tried to give blood today. They didn't like my blood. I'm apparently a little anemic. That's a new state in my life.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

I have that happen sometimes as well. Of course, it turned up in my pre-procedure blood work and my lawsuit fearful GP is talking about sending me to a blood specialist for a full work up. Dude, I've had borderline anemia since I was Eight. My dad has it. They take my blood 9 times out of 10. I'll eat some damn spinach - just don't send me to another specialist because you think I might sue.

[corylus-unbound.livejournal.com]

I'm not allowed to give blood but would if I could.