Secretary of the Mass. Executive Office of Health & Human Services Marylou Sudders and the Bay State’s Dept. of Public Health Commissioner Margret Cook signed on to a letter calling for the FDA to end its policy banning gay, bisexual men and other queer people from donating blood, reported Boston.com yesterday.
Reported Boston.com:
The letter comes as the nation is facing its worst blood shortage in a decade, the newspaper wrote.
The health officials have signed on to a letter to the commissioner of the FDA to toss out its 90-day blood donor deferral policy for men who have sex with other men, the [Boston] Herald reported.
This policy stems from the era of the AIDS epidemic, and used to be even more restrictive, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Originally, it banned men who have sex with men from ever giving blood. Then, in 2015, it changed to banning them from giving blood within a year of having sex with another man. Since 2020, it bans them from giving within 90 days of having sex with another man.
“There is no credible evidence that the 90-day MSM (men who have sex with men) blood donation deferral period improves the safety of the nation’s blood donation supply,” North Carolina health officials wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.
“And therefore, the continuation of this policy serves only to further stigmatize an already marginalized demographic group and unnecessarily restricts the eligible donor population during a time of extraordinary need in the U.S. The current policy is ineffective, unnecessary, and discriminatory.”
Read the complete Boston.com story here.
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