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Christie:

Good day, everybody. This is Christie Hetty with the HSC Health Works podcast.

Christie:

Today’s guest is from the American Red Cross. Rodney Wilson is a senior spokesperson who specializes in biomedical services. With January now being a national blood donor month, it’s a perfect time to talk about ways to help the shortage taking place nationwide. We’ll talk about how the Red Cross is managing this safely, how you can donate, what to look for, how you can be a good candidate to donate blood. And there are patients in the hospital still who still need blood, and I know a lot of headlines last year in 2020 about convalescent plasma which we’ll get into here in a minute.

Christie:

But I’d love to welcome our guest, Rodney Wilson. Welcome, Rodney. Happy new year.

Rodney:

Thank you so much. Happy new year to you.

Christie:

Thank you.

Christie:

So, convalescent plasma. It’s something that we’ve seen in the media headlines. 2020 was a tough year. We are still not out of the woods yet as it relates to COVID and, in particular, the blood shortage nationwide.

Christie:

Can you explain for us, basically, what convalescent plasma is, how it may differ than perhaps a regular blood donation?

Rodney:

Absolutely. So convalescent plasma is basically plasma that we have taken as a donation from someone who’s recovered from an illness like COVID-19, and that plasma contains antibodies that have helped that individual fight off the infection. And the concept of convalescent plasma is that when someone recovers from an illness like COVID-19, the antibodies that they have can be transfused to someone else who is critically ill and that those antibodies will help that person fight off the illness.

Rodney:

So with COVID-19 happening, the Red Cross quickly put into place a program specific to COVID-19 and finding individuals who have recovered from the coronavirus and assessing if they have an adequate amount of antibodies, that they’ve reacted to that virus and taking donations from them to treat the most critically ill. And it’s been quite an interesting program and a lifesaving program, and the need for that product continues to increase as cases of coronavirus continue to increase across the country.

Christie:

So in order to participate as a donor with the convalescent plasma, you have to have the antibodies.

Christie:

So then, how does that all work?

Rodney:

So a lot of people may not know if they’ve had the coronavirus. There’s still so much that we don’t know about the virus, and many people may have come into contact with it and never developed symptoms. So they don’t even know if they may have contracted it, and they may have created antibodies against it.

Rodney:

So part of what the Red Cross is doing now during the pandemic is that all blood platelet and plasma donations made through the Red Cross are being tested for those antibodies, for the coronavirus antibodies. So even if you aren’t sure if you had the coronavirus, if you donate a regular blood donation, we will screen it for the antibodies for the coronavirus. And if you test positive for those antibodies, we’re able to use the plasma from that donation as convalescent plasma to help other individuals battling the coronavirus.

Rodney:

So that’s if somebody doesn’t know if they’ve come into contact with the virus. If you know that you had the virus, you were diagnosed with it, and you recovered from it, we would encourage you to become a plasma donor. The difference between a regular blood donation and a plasma donation is that we can take much more plasma from you if you give plasma only, a larger amount of plasma.

Rodney:

So individuals who’ve recovered from COVID-19, you know you had it, that would be an ideal candidate to give the plasma donation.

Christie:

And then can someone be a donor for the plasma donation because they had COVID and they’ve recovered? They have the antibodies. They’ve been tested, and it showed they do have the antibodies and then several months from now, donate plasma again because of the need and they’re a COVID survivor?

Rodney:

Yeah, absolutely. And you can donate plasma much more frequently than you can a regular blood donation. When you give a regular blood donation, you have to wait about six weeks until you can donate again. But with a plasma donation, you can give much more frequently. I believe that it’s maybe even once a week or more than that because your body replenishes that much more quickly.

Rodney:

So if you know that you have the antibodies and you’re able to donate plasma, what a life-saving thing that can do right now during the pandemic to help others who are battling this virus. And we really just need more of the convalescent plasma. That’s really the only treatment that has proven to be effective so far.

Rodney:

And just encourage anyone who may have recovered, or you believe you may have come into contact with the virus to donate blood or plasma. So do your part, basically, and and help others during this time.

Christie:

Sure. It’s interesting. I would imagine that there would be individuals who had COVID who may not be as hesitant to go in to donate. And there will be those folks who, obviously, are extremely cautious when they go into donate blood. They may have not have had COVID. They’re wearing masks. They’re wearing gloves to donate blood.

Christie:

What I’m talking about is safety. Where things are today, now in 2021, with the American Red Cross, when a person who has not had COVID goes into donate blood, can you describe to us what that scenario looks like because it’s quite different than it was two years ago when a blood donor would walk through the doors.

Rodney:

That’s a really good point. If you’ve never or if you’ve ever been to a blood drive before, what does look different today? And that’s because of all the safety precautions that we have in place. I think it’s important to note that blood donation is considered an essential service classified by the CDC and the FDA and state and federal health agencies consider that an essential service, that blood donations must continue so that patients can continue to get the medical treatments that they need regardless of pandemic or seasons or holidays. So it’s encouraged that people donate blood, and the Red Cross has implemented a number of safety measures to make sure that everyone who comes to a blood drive will be in a safe, clean, sterile medical environment.

Rodney:

So when you come to a blood drive, we check the temperature of everyone before they enter the blood drive. That includes our own staff members and volunteers, but also blood donors who come to the event. We also have hand sanitizer that is used throughout the process by everyone involved. Masks are required when you come into a Red Cross blood drive, and we wipe down every donor touchpoint between each donor, and we have everything further apart. So that’s visually what you’ll notice as well is that the blood donation beds, the health history stations, everything is spaced further apart so that we can ensure social distancing.

Rodney:

So we want everyone who may be willing to donate to feel comfortable and safe and knowing that we’ve taken every precaution to make sure that that is a sterile environment for you to make your donation.

Christie:

That’s reassuring because there are definitely people who… they want to make that difference and knowing that there are precautions taken, especially with the sensitive and essential, as you’ve said, need to donate blood. It will give them quite a bit more reassurance.

Christie:

And it… I came across some information about when the pandemic hit last year in 2020 that blood drives started to shrink. I think at school districts, on campuses, perhaps at universities or other places, there were doors that had to be closed just because we were all trying to get our sea legs ready and stable with what was going on in the early days of the pandemic.

Christie:

Where are things now with blood drives? How can someone find out where to go to donate blood?

Rodney:

With the way that the pandemic has unfolded, it’s rapidly changing, right? You kind of described most of 2020. And what we saw with what was happening in society with many businesses closing, schools closing, blood drives that had been planned at those places had to be canceled as schools all closed and the students are all learning from home. Obviously, that school can’t host a blood drive if nobody is there or a business where all their employees are now working remotely, maybe they would have hosted a blood drive otherwise, but there’s nobody in their building. So they can’t host the blood drive there.

Rodney:

So what we saw was thousands of blood drives across the country canceled because of the pandemic as an unintended consequence of what was happening. So it’s been a real struggle for us to ensure that we have enough locations to collect blood. We want to make it as easy for people to find a Red Cross blood drive. And if we don’t have enough blood drives, obviously, we can’t collect enough blood.

Rodney:

So part of what we’ve been really focused on over the last year is identifying new places to go and host blood drives that maybe we hadn’t gone before. Some examples of places that have stepped up during the pandemic. A lot of sports arenas have opened their doors to allow us to host a blood drives and marketed the blood drives to their fans. Many churches that have maybe a gym or a large open room have opened their doors to allow us to come in and host blood drives maybe even regularly once a week or a couple times a week. So we need more places like that.

Rodney:

So not only do we need people to donate blood, but if you know of a place that we could host a blood drive, maybe at your church or at your school, a place that would be willing to let us set up, then that blood drive could result in dozens and dozens of blood donations to help patients.

Christie:

That’s a really good point. And actually, that brings up the elements that are on your website, www.redcrossblood.org. Is that right, Rodney?

Rodney:

Yes, that’s correct.

Christie:

Where an individual can go and look on a regional and local level to see where the local Red Cross offices are which include, obviously, the blood donation information.

Christie:

What if there were someone who wanted to donate blood, but they weren’t a good candidate. Flu, obviously. They can’t… you don’t want to be walking in with the flu or anything like that, but what would make a person not a good candidate?

Rodney:

Well, we absolutely want individuals to only come to a blood drive to donate if they are feeling well. If anybody is not feeling well, they should not come to donate blood.

Rodney:

So the general criteria is that you need to be in general good health and feeling well. You need to be a minimum of 110 pounds, and you have to be at least 17 years old. And there’s some states that allow you to donate at 16 if you have a signed parental consent form. So if you meet that criteria, you meet the basic eligibility to donate blood.

Rodney:

And then there’s a number of things that might make you ineligible for a period of time. If you’ve traveled outside of the United States to certain countries, you might need to wait for 12 months before you can donate blood, and that’s just because you might pick up something like malaria. You might be exposed to malaria, and it might not show up in a test for up to 12 months. So you might need to wait after travel. There might be certain medications that you’re taking that could make you ineligible and just generally feeling healthy and well, that’s generally what the requirements are.

Rodney:

So anybody who has questions, if you have certain medications you want to check on, the Red Cross is available to answer those questions. You can call us, 1-800-RED-CROSS and ask about your own individual eligibility, and they can assess and determine if you might be eligible.

Christie:

That’s really good information to know. Thank you for that.

Christie:

I know with the way 2020 was and now that we’re in this new year, a lot of people are excited that it’s a new year. It doesn’t take away from some of the issues, blood shortage being one as we’re talking about, but people have perhaps shifted their thinking and really want to make a difference which is something, obviously, the Red Cross does. There’s volunteer opportunities where people can make a difference beyond just the blood donation.

Christie:

When it comes to volunteering at the Red Cross, as we’re closing out here, what would you say would be the one thing that you would like people to know nationwide about ways to make a difference?

Rodney:

Well, the Red Cross has a lot of different community services. Blood donation is one. We also provide services to the armed forces. We drive individuals to medical appointments in certain places. We provide CPR and first aid training. We respond to home fires alongside firefighters to help the families that have been impacted. We respond to national disasters like hurricanes and wildfires.

Rodney:

So we do a lot of different things, and I think the coolest part of that is that it’s just common people that make it possible. It’s volunteers in the community who are trained to know how to respond to those things that are doing the work. It’s neighbors helping neighbors. And we encourage anybody who might be interested in just helping your neighbor to join the Red Cross in this mission to take care of each other. And we can find the right fit for you, whether it’s driving blood and delivering it to a hospital or it’s helping to coordinate the blood drive or it’s responding to a fire to make sure that the family is taken care of or working in our offices and volunteering and helping with paperwork or whatever clinical duties we have.

Rodney:

There’s so many opportunities. We can find the right opportunity for you, and everyone is welcome and needed in that mission.

Christie:

That’s actually really good information to know. I know one of the things that also came out of this last year were the mental health… the importance of mental health, and when faced with so many stressors, as we all have been globally, the opportunity to give back and volunteer actually can boost one’s wellbeing, so we appreciate you sharing that information.

Christie:

Rodney, thank you so much for joining us today on the HSC Health Works podcast. Happy new year.

Rodney:

Thank you so much.