The American Red Cross has declared an emergency blood shortage, saying patients are at risk of not getting lifesaving transfusions.

Donors are needed now more than ever as the Red Cross faces a national emergency shortage, with the number of donors at a 20-year low. Medical director Dr. Eric Gehrie says the Red Cross has experienced a loss of 300,000 donors since the COVID-19 pandemic alone.

“It means that hospitals will order a certain number of units of blood, and those orders are not being filled fully,” he said. “So hospital blood banks are low on blood.”

  • northendtrooper
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    11 months ago

    Wow, you would think there would be more clinical trials and media on this.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      11 months ago

      Right? Though I think the issue is that there’s no measured benefit. It reduces PFAS in your system. I think we all assume this is a good thing. But we don’t know for sure, so we can’t really recommend this for any medical benefits.

      But it seems like a good thing to me, so I keep sharing it :-)