joining us now from new york blood
center is cheddar correspondent Chloe Aiello Chloe,
hey Michelle.
Well I am joined now by jennifer Macquarie,
she's the business development manager at new york blood center, jennifer,
thank you so much for joining us today.
This early hour. We're talking a lot about this blood crisis but how serious is it?
It's pretty serious.
You know, currently we have about a day,
a day and a half of blood on our shelves
and typically we would like to have a five day supply
and we want to stabilize the blood supply and one way to
do that is to currently constantly have donors come out and donate.
And the Omnicom variant is something that's hindering that
and people are pulling out of their appointments,
businesses and schools are canceling blood drives and
it's preventing us from keeping that supply steady and stable.
What is actually causing this crisis?
Part of it is the pandemic and now part of it's going to be the impending storm.
So we usually have
a bit of a shortage at this time of year
with the holidays and travel plans and people would typically,
it's not on the first thing on their list.
But now with the omni Cron variant,
it's something that also has impacted people coming out
Throughout the years.
We would have schools that would be 50,000 pints of
blood that we would be typically collect and schools are now
they were started to come back and then the Omnicom
variant they're starting to cancel and they're hesitant to schedule.
So that's part of the issue as well
And with the new year, you know, it's national blood donor month january.
So it's a great time for people to
start something new and come out and donate.
I want to circle back to that question about impact because we talk
a lot about statistics when we're talking about the impact of the shortage.
But on the human level, what does it actually mean when there is a shortage of blood,
what impact does it have on patient?
So one of the impacts is it now it's it's a struggle for
the health care providers to manage traumas and other and and other surgeries.
So with the pandemic,
they were holding off on surgeries now that they've
caught up on those surgeries that weren't as serious
Now we need to keep the supply back and
and revamp it and stabilize it and replenish it.
And that's something that can only be done by people coming out and donating.
It's not something that we can make. So we do need
others to come out and constantly donate. And
youth donors are part of that as
as well. So we don't have those donors for the past two years.
So those are something that's something that we really need,
given that you mentioned obviously that there is a winter storm coming.
Uh, that's another factor that you said is gonna really impact this.
Uh,
so given that and given the efforts to really amp up
donorship when might we see an end to the shortages?
Well when we hopefully soon we're hoping that, you know,
people will come out and start realizing that, you know, the only again,
the only way to have blood on the shelves is if people come out and donate,
it's not something we can make it something that
we all have to take part in.
Um, we don't want people, you know, a lot of people think, oh I can't donate,
but they should honestly come out and try call the 800 number that we can provide.
And it's on our website, N Y B C dot org. You can go there check our eligibility
and and don't self differ.
You know,
you'd be surprised that a lot of people
think they're not eligible when they truly are.
And and it's the best thing and you know, saving a life,
you have the potential to help impact three lives by coming out and donating.
And final question for you for someone who has never donated before,
can you describe what the process might be?
It might be a little intimidating. So what does it involve? How long does it take?
How much blood are you giving? How many lives you're saving just by one donation?
So one donation has the potential to save three lives and impact more.
And when you come out it takes about an hour, you're gonna do a little self history,
your answer some questions, you get a mini medical, which is always a great thing.
You donate a pint of blood
and then you get cookies and juice.
And so there's there's it's a win win because you helped save lives,
which is the greatest incentive you could ever have for doing anything in life.
Jennifer, Thank you so much for your time today.
That's jennifer Macquarie,
business development manager at new york Blood Center.