In response to COVID-19, a group of 15 US senators have called upon the Food and Drug Administration to update blood donation restrictions on gay and bisexual men. Among those who signed onto a March 26 letter are Senators Elizabeth Warren and Joe Markey of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
Currently gay and bisexual men who have been sexually actively within one year are not permitted to donate blood—a policy enacted under the Obama administration, which updated a 1983 law prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating blood for the rest of their lives.
According to Microsoft News: “As of March 16, the American Red Cross reported that social distancing and self-isolation to prevent coronavirus’ spread had resulted in the cancellation of 2,700 blood drives and 86,000 fewer donations. During a March 19 briefing of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, Surgeon General Jerome Adams called on all Americans to address this critical shortage by giving blood, saying that “one donation can save up to three lives.”
Wrote the senators, “We must take every possible step to secure our nation’s blood supply in this critical time, and in order to do so, we need to shift away from antiquated and stigmatizing donation policies to ones that are scientifically sound, based on individual risk, and inclusive of all potential healthy donors. …
“[W]ith important advances in blood screening and safety technology, a time-based deferral policy is not scientifically sound, continues, to effectively exclude many healthy gay and bisexual men and does not meet the urgent demands of the moment. Further, with the increased uptake of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxsis (PrEP), which reduces the likelihood that an HIV-negative individual will acquire HIV, many more gay and bisexual men are aware of their HIV-negative status and are taking steps to effectively eliminate their personal risk of HIV transmission. As such, it is imperative that we move away from discriminatory donor deferral policies that prohibit many healthy individuals from contributing much-needed blood and blood products.”
You can read the complete letter here.
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