The sheer level of personal attention is intoxicating. A gentle stranger asks you how you’re feeling, strokes your arm, plies you with snacks, and bids you to rest. Many of us remember the experience of clambering onto a rickety blood bus and submitting to a cross-examination about whether we consumed beef in the United Kingdom in the 1990s.īut after more than a year of social distancing, giving blood now feels spa-like.
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OK, blood donations in the “Before Times” were admittedly a drag - characterized by medical drabness, antiseptic seating areas, long wait times and the oddness of an eagle-eyed professional watching to make sure you drink all your juice.
And not just because giving blood saves lives.
That should change now that we’re exiting the pandemic. Less than 5% of Americans donate blood even once a year. "It's a very challenging time," Fry says.
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With low pandemic donor turnout compounded by blood-drive locations closing for the summer - plus hospitals rescheduling elective surgeries - supplies are shrinking. "We’re seeing less than 2 days of supply, nationwide, for certain blood types," says Kate Fry, CEO of America's Blood Centers. Those who are eligible and comfortable should schedule blood donations among our first post-vaccine appointments, like haircuts and dentist appointments.Īmerica is in critical need of more blood. My modest proposal for people who are vaccinated and feel the visceral ache of identification with the phrase “skin hunger”: donate blood. And yet in its total absence, we have felt less alive.
Physical touch with those outside our bubble has been inextricably connected with fears of death. We’ve dodged each other’s breath and given up kissing strangers. Over the past 15 months, we’ve watched in terror as more than half a million of our neighbors have died. And when I get cocky and let slip that I’m AB-negative-the blood equivalent of being a big tipper - the blood techs swoon. Pints of whole red are redeemable for Chipotle gift cards. The national blood supply is so diminished that Vitalant, the nonprofit blood center I frequent, has resorted to a latte punch card-style system. I’m talking about my local San Francisco blood bank.