January 6, 2021
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
The American Red Cross has teamed up with the NFL to encourage more people to donate blood after it saw an increase in blood drive cancellations in 2020. In 2020, we saw our blood drives canceled three times higher than the year before.
Jessica Merrill, the director of Biomedical Communications at American Red Cross, says this was mostly due to the pandemic. She says closed businesses and schools made it difficult to hold blood drives at those places. She says schools account for about 20% of their overall blood drives and that collections at high schools and colleges dropped by more than 50% compared to the previous year.
The American Red Cross and the National
Football League are teaming up this January, during National Blood Donor Month,
to urge individuals – especially those who have recovered from COVID-19 – to
give blood and to help tackle the national convalescent plasma shortage.
Red Cross offering chance at Super Bowl package to boost donations
Between the holidays and COVID, the Red Cross is dealing with a drop in donations.
There is a major need for plasma donations, especially from people who have recovered from COVID-19. The plasma from survivors has been show to be an effective treatment for critically ill patients.
“Blood and plasma donors who have recovered from COVID-19 may have the power to help critically ill patients currently battling the virus,” said Dr. Erin Goodhue, Red Cross medical director of clinical services. “With hospital distributions for convalescent plasma increasing about 250% since October, these generous donations are vital in helping to save lives throughout the winter – a time that is often challenging to collect enough blood products for those in need.”