Canceled blood drives put strain on supply

Versiti, Red Cross screen those entering centers

Jerome Gottschall has been involved in the business of securing lifesaving blood for hospitals for 40 years and has never seen such a serious threat to the supply as that posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This has the potential for being the most serious longterm shortage of blood in American history,” said Gottschall, senior medical director at Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin, which collects 60% to 70% of all the blood used in Wisconsin hospitals.

Gottschall said the center had 50 mobile blood drives canceled in March alone, costing the state about 1,700 units of blood. This would translate to a loss of 20% to 25% of all the blood the center expected to

collect in March.

“We have cancellations already going into April and May,” Gottschall said.

The American Red Cross said concerns about the new coronavirus have forced the cancellation of 2,700 blood drives across the nation resulting in a loss of about 86,000 fewer donations.

Both Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin and Red Cross said they are screening people before they even enter blood centers and do not constitute public gatherings covered by the government warnings.

Versiti urged people to make appointments to donate blood by calling 1877-BE-A-HERO or going on the web site www.versiti.org.

The Red Cross urged people to schedule appointments to give blood by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, using the Red Cross Blood Donor App or calling 1-800RED-CROSS. Donors can also enable the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device.

“In times of crisis we see the very best of humanity,” said Laura McGuire, who works in external communications for the American Red Cross. “Americans really step up for each other.”

Despite the cancellation of many elective surgeries, many patients require blood — especially cancer and trauma patients.

The Red Cross and Versiti both said their blood supplies have not dipped to the point at which they would be forced to send out less than normal to hospitals. But they fear where all of the blood drive cancellations are leading.

“Within a week or two we could be sending less blood to the hospitals and then their inventories will begin to go down,” Gottschall said, adding that under ordinary circumstances when one center runs low, others are able to step in to help maintain that center’s supply.

“That’s probably not going to be available in a month.”

Cancellation of schools has hit the blood industry especially hard. Gottschall

said high schools supply between 10% and 15% of all the blood collected in the U.S.

The other blow has been the adoption of social distancing practices including the cancellation of gatherings of over 50 people. Both McGuire and Gottschall expressed support for these measures, but stressed that people need to come out of their homes for food, medications and for blood.

“We need people to come out of their homes for that short time to donate blood,” Gottschall said.

McGuire stressed that there is no evidence to this point that the new coronavirus can spread through blood. So far transmission has been through droplets secreted in coughs or sneezes.