IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER!

Blood plasma, I really did not know much about it until recently and what I know probably fills just a thimble even today. Why, though, do we not know more about it? I recently discovered that the medical community is infusing blood plasma into people in severe shape from the Covid-19 virus. That plasma carries with it the antibodies that are needed to fight off covid-19. As over one hundred million people have contracted the dreaded virus, I wonder why there aren’t more advertisements, more public requests for people to donate if they’ve had Covid-19

People are getting sick and not going to the doctors. There should be testing for those that have the symptoms, but getting them to take the tests is going to take education. Where is the education? We see advertisements about social distancing, wearing masks, and being a part of the problem. Isn’t it time for new and expanded ads if there’s a treatment, other than the vaccines? Let’s face facts, the vaccine rollout has been slow and under projections. So, requesting more donors, getting the word out to the public, and encouraging people to help push this dreaded virus into the past should be more focused on, right? If there’s one of you that don’t know about this, like myself before a couple of Saturdays ago, then you realize how I feel about the importance the experts doing a better job of educating the public on what they could do.

So it was, two Saturdays ago, that I walked into the Mississippi Valley Blood Center around ten-thirty. It was a regular appointment, something I’ve been doing every couple of months. The staff in this place is always friendly, most of them younger and energetic. There’s just one other person, the waiting area spread out more due to social distancing. I took a seat on the opposite side of the room from the elderly, gray-haired, woman, reading her magazine. It didn’t take long before a member of the staff asks me if I’m Jason.

Quickly they take me back to an exam room for my mini-physical. While I am in there, they have me read a disclosure about antigens, testing my blood for Covid-19 plasma needs. The lady explains how it works, in her professional experience and I try my best to take it all in. Someone with the same type of blood that has Covid-19 anti-bodies can donate plasma to someone with the same blood type that is in a hospital, maybe suffering, perhaps dying. The medical communities are using it to boost people’s ability to fight the virus, while they try the fancy drug cocktails. I’m there because I know that people aren’t donating at a regular pace, due to Covid. The very same reason that I’m being asked about having my donation tested, is the thing that keeps people from donating at the levels they did before the pandemic.

One of my very best friends has a daughter who suffered from the virus. A young person, athletic, healthy, and possibly unable to work again because of the effects of Covid-19 complications. They looked for a plasma donation with a matching blood type, finding only two in the country. Two, in all fifty states. As I looked at the numbers of people today, over nine million people are considered recovered. Those nine-million people, at some point, were walking around with anti-bodies in their blood. Nine-million potential treatments for people who are seriously ill with Covid-19.

Imagine it was your kid, your parents, your spouse. Imagine being there, watching them being intubated, breathing with a machine because they’re struggling. Imagine knowing that someone out there, with the same blood type, had the anti-bodies. Maybe that person doesn’t realize that in just a couple of hours of their time, they could be responsible for saving a life. Now, imagine that you found out, weeks after the loss of a loved one if you were a donor, they might’ve survived. With one simple search at redcross.org, you can find a donation site near you. Just a little of your time and you could help fight off the Covid virus while potentially saving a life.

Whether it’s blood donations or plasma donations, the donations are used for the sick and the injured, those that are seriously at risk of death or suffering serious injuries. We could all end up that way, one day. We could all end up wishing that more people would take the time to volunteer and donate.