Neither Jefferson Hall of Concord nor Ed Gass of Goffstown worried about giving blood Thursday at Red Cross headquarters in Manchester.
No, they didn’t realize that donating during the coronavirus outbreak posed no danger, a fact hammered home by Mary Brant, the state’s communications manager for the Red Cross. It didn’t occur to them to ask.
Giving blood, as opposed to receiving it, might seem harmless, but the newness of the illness and the tension it’s caused worldwide has donors staying home, and that, in turn, has caused Red Cross officials to look ahead to the possibility of a blood shortage.
“We expect this number to continue to grow with the number of cases on the rise, making it difficult to sustain the blood supply for patients in need,” Brant said. “That’s why the Red Cross strongly urges blood drive hosts to keep hosting blood drives and for healthy, eligible individuals to schedule a blood or platelet donation appointment to help maintain a sufficient blood supply and avoid any potential shortages.”
Hall and Gass were not concerned about any risks involved with giving blood during the outbreak. It came down to trust, even as this strange new illness changes the world, in many cases preventing people from attending huge sporting events and sending college kids home early.
“The flu can do the same thing to you as this,” Hall said, shortly after giving blood in Manchester. “The way I look at it, they (the Red Cross) know what they’re doing. The needles are sterile.”
Meanwhile, Gass is a bus driver in the Goffstown school district, driving students to and from school, seemingly without a care in the world.
“I’m not worried,” said Gass, who’s 74. “I assumed the Red Cross knows what it’s doing. And I’m still driving the school bus with a bus-load of kids. I drove them today and I will be driving them this afternoon.”
All news out of this blood-donating center, relatively speaking, was good, according to Brant. Thursday was the initial day of an ongoing process that will check each person’s temperature for fever, and that includes donors as well as staff, helping officials choose who should give blood and who should go home.
As always, donors’ blood-giving arms are prepared with aseptic scrub and sterile collection sets are used.
But Brant believes the most important piece of news is the fact that the coronavirus is a respiratory-based infection, and there has never, ever been a case of a respiratory illness being transferred to someone through a blood transfusion, anywhere in the world.
“No reported cases of that,” Brant said. “No data about a respiratory virus, including this one that’s going around the world, has been found to have occurred from (a blood transfusion).”
There were other facts that Brant hopes will calm nerves. For one thing, only one blood drive has been canceled in the state, which resulted in 18 uncollected blood donations.
Meanwhile, nearly 300 Red Cross drives have been canceled nationwide, resulting in about 8,000 uncollected blood donations, and that supply shortage means patients in hospitals who need a transfusion might not get one.
According to Brant, blood donations subside in the winter and summer, when high school and college students, who make up a large section of donors, have gone home.
It was unclear Thursday if there have been fewer donors in recent weeks because of the outbreak.
In Manchester Thursday, Gass continued his annual routine. He’s known as a “power red” donor, meaning the blood he gives every four months will be placed in a centrifuge and split into three components: plasma, red blood cells and platelets. Each can be used to target different illnesses, making the power red program more diverse in its healing powers than whole blood.
“I want to help,” Gass said, “but I don’t think at this point in New Hampshire we have to be alarmed.”
Hall agreed. He gives whole blood three times a year. He has three children, one at Concord High School and two at Shaker Road School.
No major attendance changes have been implemented at either school, but, despite his secure feelings, Hall knows circumstances are changing on a daily basis.
“The schools have been talking to us, but there’s been nothing about cancellations,” Hall said. “I hope it stays that way. Half the colleges are closing down.”