Going to hell? We're already here!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13799288
Going to hell? We're already here!
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13799288
Going to hell? We're already here!
Images like this make it difficult to distinguish satire from reality, especially on April Fools Day.
In a post truth world, April Fools is cancer. My family has stopped joking altogether.
The real crime here is how much money the companies selling the products made from the plasma make.
Scam poor people out of their plasma, then charge sick people horrendous prices.
Sound bad? Yes! But thankfully there's a solution! It's.. drumroll guillotines!!
Huh, TIL. I've donated at blood drives in the past and got a cookie but that was it. Must be different.
The US approach to donation is odd, to say the least. You can't be paid for blood, or organs. Blood products, like plasma, aren't actually regulated and you can be compensated for them. The companies that collect those blood and organs you can't profit from? They can make money from those transactions.
Donating plasma and blood are different, yeah. My dad would donate plasma and was given a card that would be added to every time he went. I want to say it was like $50 each time, but you weren’t allowed to go too often.
Here you can get up to 40€ per donation, max 50 times a year. So in theory, you could maybe earn a third of your rent this way (best case).
My own daughter has had to sell plasma to pay her bills for the past 2 years and it breaks my heart. I had a heart attack in 2018 and am on SSDI. Still I found a way to give her $900 over the winter.
She wouldn't be able to donate because she has a full sleeve, you need to see her veins...
So it must an April fools!
Maybe she doesn't on the other arm or has a usable vein elsewhere 🤷
The veins in my arms are difficult to find, so when I need blood extracted they use one on the back of my hand. They could do the same with her..
They can't/wont use hand veins for this, since they have to extract, process, and return the volume not used. IME they wanted an arm vein and only went after the inner elbow for the needle site. The hand vein likely isn't large enough to use for this purpose.
Where are ya'll going to donate blood where compensation is legal? Most places have banned that practice.
Donating blood is uncompensated to my knowledge, but donating plasma is definitely compensated, but very low. My wife was just complaining that the local donation center only offers $90/week, and that's with 2 donations. It's like 35 or something for one session, and a total scam for those who are desperate for money.
I make $110 for two donations and I don't feel like I'm getting scammed. But I'm also not desperate for money.
My wife was getting that or a bit more for a while, but they constantly change what the weekly payout is around us.
Yeah where I'm from you can't donate blood, plasma, platelets, your eggs or sperm, or be a surrogate in exchange for money. That was working okay for a while but after the pandemic hit they've become desperate for donors.
Back in my old job I actually did this.
You could make $400 a month for 30 minutes a week. It was better than a part-time job, but definitely still a testament to the fact that we're all being robbed of our labor, seeing as how you shouldn't need it if you're a working adult.
Interesting fact though: plasma donation is an effective way of dramatically lowering PFAS and other "forever chemicals" as well as possibly microplastics in the bloodstream.
True story.
I got money for donating plasma. It was cool.
Lots of people need plasma.
I don't think this is as hellish as everyone is pretending, this is straightforward supply and demand.
Red cross is way worse, since they ask for donations, sell blood at a profit and don't disburse any compensation to their volunteers.
The point isn't that you're paid for plasma, it's that you have to sell plasma to pay rent.
Got it. I was responding to the comments, which are mostly complaining about plasma being paid for.
The issue of someone selling plasma specifically to pay rent is obviously worse, but at least they get paid. No compensation at all for donating for-profit blood to "charities", which is way crazier and exploitative.
Boy Boy made a great video about this. A lot of the blood is actually going towards silicon valley tech billionaires who think other peoples blood can cure aging. Companys also sell the blood at a profit so it's not like they're actually better than the red cross who give the blood to actual hospitals. There is a reason we don't allow people to sell their organs. Giving too much plasma can be dangerous. It shouldn't be any different.
In germany there is a limit how often you can donate. I think that is something that every country should implement. If you can only donate 5 times a year there is no real medical problem with doing it.
So you're saying it's better that you donate plasma to companies that sell it to silicon valley bros at the highest bidder than donating for free to the red cross and having it going to a hospital?
Thank you! I envy your imagination though in thinking that the red cross can donate the blood plasma to hospitals while also paying the donors a bunch of money. Seems like it would cut into the other important work the red cross does just so they can compete with for profit companies that sell the plasma to the highest bidder where it goes to tech companies wasting it on fake anti-aging cures. But what do I know.
Not much about the red cross.
The red cross doesn't "donate" blood; volunteers donate blood to the red cross, who sells that donated blood to hospitals for hundreds of dollars a unit.
The red cross takes in nearly 2 billion dollars annually from donated blood in what is not called "profit" because the red cross is classified as a "nonprofit" who sells donated blood.
The fees the red cross charges is the costs related to the blood collection. It's a non-profit organisation.