If someone is having a bad day and wants to buy a gun to carry out a massacre, they need only pass a minimal background check. If I want to give blood to save lives - including the lives of victims of gun violence - I have to maintain an iron rich diet, answer dozens of highly personal questions about my medical history, vaccinations, medications, reproductive history, travels, personal habits, ethnicity, and sex life and undergo medical checks and blood testing. Life in America makes no sense.
Perhaps even more disconcerting, the blood you gave may go to save the life of someone who was a victim of that gun violence…
@Luber905 Zzz many of the 86 units of blood that I’ve donated probably went to newborns because my blood is human cytomegalovirus negative, making it safe for babies, but yeah…
Nicely done. I’m stuck at 54 donations because of low ferritin and hemoglobin right now. But I love our permanent clinic and have volunteered there for the last 5 or 6 years. Sadly, only 2-5% of Canadians are regular blood donors… but something may be happening. The last 6 months I’ve seen more first-time donors than I have over the previous 5 year! Here’s hoping.
@Luber905 🤞
Do you know if CBS has any plans to remove the “can’t donate because you lived in the UK during certain years” rule, like they did in Australia?
It’s the main reason I cannot donate here.
I believe it remains the same:
“If you spent a cumulative total of three months or more in the United Kingdom (UK) between January 1980 and December 31, 1996, you remain ineligible to donate.”
@cassandra17lina The USA is broken by design.