“A blood shortage is when we have demand outpacing our supply,” said Paul Sullivan, senior vice president of donor services for the American Red Cross. “Usually it’s around some challenging period of the year. The beginning of summer, end-of-year holidays. And obviously we work hard to try to plan for those times.”
But this time is different, Sullivan said, with the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout triggering a huge spike in hospital demands for blood. The result is a critical blood shortage that’s seven weeks long and counting.
“In the initial phase of the pandemic, we certainly saw a decline in blood need,” he said. “I think for all the obvious reasons. And COVID is not particularly blood-intensive.”
But now the country is facing a “unique situation,” said Sullivan, with large hospitals and trauma centers registering an 8% to 9% jump in demand over the spring and summer months.
Why? Prior to the vaccine rollout, “there’s the aspect that some people didn’t receive care or treatment to the degree they might normally have during the pandemic,” he said.
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