3 ms·

Ehm, didn't the UK buy tainted blood from for-profit US vendors?

• Scoundreller 8y ago
  Something like 1.3% of US exports are blood and blood products. Plasma is an industry there. Meanwhile, in Canada, we’re steadfast against paid donations. But the volunteer model doesn’t generate enough blood products, so we have to import from the US too. Edit: I had said 3%, but it’s 1.3%. Still a lot in the grand scheme of things.
  • gunnr15 8y ago
    How did you learn so much about blood? Are there any resources you would reccomend?
    • Scoundreller 8y ago
      It’s not a lot of knowledge, this just intersects with a lot of interests: international trade, economics, market failure, health, health economics.
  • xahrepap 8y ago
    > Meanwhile, in Canada, we’re steadfast against paid donations. But the volunteer model doesn’t generate enough blood products, so we have to import from the US too. Steadfast against paid donations, but yet willing to import paid-donation blood? Wouldn't it be better to regulate your own for-profit blood donation system than it is to trust that the US (or any other country) is doing things the way you want? I suppose the idea is that discouraging it domestically will eventually catch up to the demand. But if you allow prostituting of blood domestically you'll never get there?
    • Scoundreller 8y ago
      Mostly correct. Canada (and most other countries with a volunteer system) are self-sufficient for blood, but not self-sufficient for plasma (a blood product). The countries that do paid plasma donations end up supplying (and profiting from) countries with only volunteer plasma donor systems.