By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The American Red Cross is continuing to battle a historic blood shortage.
Red Cross Spokesman Joe Zydlo says that the blood shortage has felt like its been going on since late June, and the challenge right now for the Red Cross is that it isn't seeing the donations it typically sees this time of year.
"Typically, the blood supply will bounce back when we get into early September and schools are back in, and pre-pandemic that's typically what happened, it just has not responded," Zydlo tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And I think what's happened is while we've gotten more people to come and donate, there's also been a higher demand for folks that donate."
Zydlo says donations are typically down during the Christmas/New Year's holiday season. Also, it's difficult to get first time donors to come out during the holidays.
Zydlo says last year the Red Cross saw a surge of donors coming to donate while the Red Cross tested for COVID-19 antibodies.
But this year, with the Red Cross not testing for antibodies, Zydlo says that could be one factor causing people to not be as receptive of the current blood shortage. But on top of that, he says with vaccines being widely available, more people are are more interested in taking vacations and things they missed out on last year than giving blood.
Along with those factors, Zydlo says that there is also one more important piece of information to consider.
"There's also been a higher demand for blood products," Zydlo says. "Over the last two months, the Red Cross nationally has had to collect ten thousand more additional blood donations over the course of a week."
Zydlo says the Red Cross needs to collect nearly 13,000 donations nationwide for hospitals, and when you add another 10,ooo per week, that's a large increase in demand.
"Part of that is more elective surgeries, people that were pausing that last year weren't doing that, hospitals weren't necessarily doing that for a few months they took that off," Zydlo explains.
Zydlo says those elective procedures, such as hip or knee replacement, need blood, and with those being put off over the past year, the demand for blood wasn't as high.
To find out where blood donation opportunities are available you can click HERE