PSA - Of the websites we peruse daily to see what kind of swill mainstream media is trying to fill up your noggins with, we noticed this week that there's a call for blood donation by the Red Cross.
Apparently the American Red Cross (ARC) is putting out an "emergency call" for blood and platelet donors. The reason? "Recent winter storms and government shutdown."
Eh? One would think that the government shutdown might PROMPT people to give blood....or at least plasma, which in big cities can sometimes lead to big money.
But "winter storms"....? Cmon. The cold wasn't a "disaster." People didn't lose blood (limbs; skin; whatever) during the "polar vortex" deep freeze we were in for about 48 hours this week. Some of em froze, like the UPS dude up north probably did, or the Iowa student in this article. But...no blood loss. Freezing weather doesn't do that to a person.
The reality is that the ARC is probably in need of making some administrative costs coin, so they're using any excuse they can latch on to (read: appealing to the fears and sensitivities of the masses) to promote their latest blood drive, which happens about this time every year. Don't believe me...? Read this article, which we first produced four years ago and reposted a bit later. It's all verifiable and it's all true: The Red Cross sells blood from blood drives, generally for experiments in labs, and generally for the big bucks. There is no charitable work involved; they don't "donate" surplus blood to people who need transfusions. They sell it for experiments. With your name, date of birth, address, blood type, etc., attached to every tube. Which should scare you, because if you happen to have something unusual about your blood, and someone in a position of power or wealth might need some of that blood, guess what...? You might have an accident. Just like the creators of all the DNA-database people are likely doing with all those "ancestry" and "heritage" and genealogy-background samples of spit you're blithely sending them. Yeah. Not something that'd be listed on your obit.
So, bottom line: Don't fall for it. Don't give blood. The actual need for transfusions is rare, but transfusions are dangerous. Pathogens in people's blood are largely untested-for, such as Lyme, which your average MD can't find with both hands, a spotlight, a bloodhound and an ELISA. Ignore the implorings of the ARC in mainstream media. Don't give into the hype.