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Saul Vazquez used to cross the border from Juárez to El Paso every Wednesday and Friday to donate blood plasma for cash with the kind of commitment typically reserved for a job.
But he hasn’t donated plasma in more than a year because of the ongoing restrictions on “non-essential” border crossings that took effect early in the pandemic. Neither have thousands of other Mexican nationals on whom plasma collection centers depended to donate the antibody-rich material used to make life-saving pharmaceuticals.
The border closure has impacted the plasma market and also hit us economically, those of us who donate,” Vazquez said.
Thousands of Mexican nationals on whom plasma collection centers depended to donate the antibody-rich material used to make life-saving pharmaceuticals have not donated in more than a year due to pandemic-related border restrictions.