Changes to the requirements for donating blood coupled with the pandemic have led to a drop-off in the number of teens and young adults donating blood.
It was a white T-shirt bearing the likeness of Snoopy wearing shades and leaning effortlessly against the iconic American Red Cross logo that prompted a surge in blood donations in the spring of 2023.
“Be cool. Give blood,” the shirt urged. The message — on young people, anyway — was effective. More than 70,000 people under age 35 responded to the call, rolling up their sleeves and giving blood in exchange for the coveted tees.
The need for blood is urgent. Over the holidays, the Red Cross had 7,000 fewer units of blood available than were needed by hospitals, said Dr. Eric Gehrie, the executive medical director of the American Red Cross. The organization speculated it would need about 8,000 additional donations every week in January to ensure that hospitals are fully supplied, he added.
“Free as in beer” means free of monetary cost. This is used to contrast the case of “Free as in speech,” meaning you have the legal right to do something. These two don’t necessarily come together; you may remember the term “shareware” meaning proprietary copyrighted software which end users are encouraged to copy and pass along, essentially doing the company’s marketing work for them. Video game demos were often shareware. This was free as in beer, but not free as in speech.
So let’s talk about the mercenary attitude toward blood donation you’re seeing in this thread, in the context of a largely left-leaning community: I want to live in a world where healthcare is provided as a public service funded by taxes, and I want rich people fairly taxed. I would be willing to volunteer such things as blood donations in such a system. That’s not the system that exists in America at the moment; hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, ambulance services etc. are run as for-profit businesses. So I’m being asked to “be a good little socialist and subsidize my third mansion out of the good of your heart.” No. In today’s world, fuck you, pay me.