4 ms·

Funny, because it is illegal to pay donors here. I used to be a donor, but the energy and effort it takes were too much for me at the time. And plasma donors ha

Funny, because it is illegal to pay donors here. I used to be a donor, but the energy and effort it takes were too much for me at the time. And plasma donors have to 'free up' a lot more time. Not to mention how i get a cookie and the semi-goverment organisation charges >600€ for a baggie to hospitals. Someone needs to pay for that CEO's third house and car collection!

simonw 1y ago
Which country are you talking about? I believe it's legal to pay donors on the USA. Presumably a European county given you quoted euros? Looks like the EU encourages member states to encourage unpaid donations: > Furthermore, Member States should take measures to promote Community self-sufficiency in human blood or blood components and to encourage voluntary unpaid donations of blood and blood components. From https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2002/98/oj/eng https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2002/98/oj/eng
- boesboes 1y ago
  Yeah, I am in the Netherlands. They say paying donors puts them & patients at risk, because it would stimulate donors' to lie about their health when donating and we can't be asked to test blood for everything. And the say it is unethical to pay for human tissues. Except when they are selling it ;)
  - ozornin 1y ago
    I have the same story in the same country with presumably the same organization (Sanquin). I used to give blood, but not anymore because I don't find what they're doing ethical.
    - aeternum 1y ago
      Does it just not feel ethical or is one of their claims false? Both of the key claims do seem to have evidence to support them: 1) Paying for blood shifts the socioeconomic distribution of the donor pool. 2) The socioeconomic shift results in more contaminated blood due to greater incidence of drug use and/or related blood-borne diseases that cannot all be tested for with high accuracy.
      - amadeuspagel 1y ago
        The second claim would applies just as much to the US.
  - refurb 1y ago
    I can assure you that the Netherlands tests all blood donations. It’s been standard for decades now. People have diseases they don’t know about and if people are ashamed by a disease, they’ll lie even when donating. I just shuddered thinking that donations wouldn’t be tested.
    - reycharles 1y ago
      to be fair they said "test for everything"
      - refurb 1y ago
        If it’s things like CJD or other prion diseases then it’s true they don’t test, but AIDS, hep C, and other common blood borne diseases? They’ve been screening every donation since the 80’s.
- n4r9 1y ago
  It is legal in the US. In fact you can potentially make a decent bit of money if you're paid $70 per donation and can donate 100 times per year [0]. Don't know if it would be worth the time to travel to the centre and wait in line, for many HN users. [0] https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/finance/how-much-donating-plasma-pays https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/finance/how-much-donatin...
  - psini 1y ago
    You can donate every 3~4 days in the US? In France I believe it is only once every 2 months for men and every 3 months for women! edit: confused plasma donation with blood donation; it is still only every 2 weeks for plasma donations over here
  - aidenn0 1y ago
    You could sell your plasma twice a week in the town I went to college. We also found that it took significantly less alcohol to get drunk if you had nearly a liter less plasma running through your veins, so it would also save us money in the evening!
  - mcculley 1y ago
    My understanding, at least where I live, Florida, is that plasma can be sold, but whole blood must be donated. I still get a $25-$35 gift card every time I donate a pint of whole blood (as close as possible to every 8 weeks).
- 3pt14159 1y ago
  Possibly Canadian, where it isn't legal to buy human blood.
criddell 1y ago
Have you actually looked up what how much a blood bank CEO makes? Is it a lot? Edit: I just did a bit of research and didn't come up with a lot. I found this example [1] where the CEO's total compensation is $414k. That doesn't seem all that high... [1]:https://givefreely.com/charity-directory/nonprofit/ein-570660489/ https://givefreely.com/charity-directory/nonprofit/ein-57066...
- boesboes 1y ago
  Well, not in the us. here that is considered an unenthical amount for a semi-public servant. In 2011 they made 260k€, which was at then time about 50% more then our prime minister made. Which is used as a norm to limit how much you are allowed to make when working for public services.
  - Permit 1y ago
    Is it enough to have three houses and a car collection as you previously stated?
    - skrebbel 1y ago
      Pretty close? Like 80k for your regular living expenses leaves you 180k/y in savings. That's a nice holiday house in France every few years. I mean to really get to a mansion and multiple holiday houses and a bunch of fancy cars you need to work the job for like 15 years, but still. In NL (where I think GP is from) earning that kind of money qualifies you as "seriously rich". Even more so if the salary got inflation-adjusted since 2011.
      - kortilla 1y ago
        Does your country not have taxes? Progressive taxation eats a lot of that quickly and all of the tax benefits of home ownership aren’t available for secondary homes. Additionally, vacation homes in desirable vacation places cost even more than normal homes. Someone making 3x a normal salary is not excessive by any means.
- 1y ago
-warren 1y ago
Funny data story time. I used to operate a database for a large North American alcohol retailer. We had a problem with our data that said that 30% of the ring from a particular store saw the name "A GIFT FOR YOU" on the CC stripe. After months of bitter accusations of my database being incorrect, we flew someone out to investigate. We found that a block away from the store was a plasma "donation" facility. In order to skirt various laws, when you "donate", you are given a prepaid credit card. The name on the card is "A GIFT FOR YOU". Donators then took that card directly to the alcohol store. All of the data was correct; 30% of the ring from one store was paid by credit cards from the plasma "donation" facility with "A GIFT FOR YOU" on the card. A large reputational battle then commenced as the retailer thought of themselves as a high-end "wine and craft beer" store, when ultimately it turns out Budweiser pays the bills. *edited for clarity
- sidewndr46 1y ago
  There's an industry piece that points out that a remarkable percentage of beer sales in the US are single cans stored cold, sold at convenience stores. Most residents of the US drive to convenience stores. Given that they are buying 1-2 cans at a time it doesn't take much in the way of inference to figure out that they are buying them to be consumed while driving.
  - stickfigure 1y ago
    I'm not following the logic. Why do you assume they aren't drunk at home?
    - sidewndr46 1y ago
      Pretty much everyone in the US owns a working fridge. If you just want to get drunk at home, you just buy a case of beer and leave it in there. It's actually much cheaper to buy beer by the case in most places
      - bombcar 1y ago
        Not if you're the type of poor person who buys lottery tickets, cans of beer, and cigarettes by the single.
e_i_pi_2 1y ago
On the other side, it is legal to pay donors where I am, but then it makes it feel like a waste to donate because you could be getting paid for it
- tshaddox 1y ago
  No more of a waste than, say, any monetary donation.
  - eru 1y ago
    Well, a bit more of a waste, because monetary donations are generally more efficient.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
riversflow 1y ago
Yeah, same. Illegal to pay donors here too. I’ve donated multiple gallons, kinda felt it was my duty as a driver on the road… but at some point I came in to donate and got told they were extra short staffed and I’d have to wait at least an hour. The clinics already have terrible hours that seem to mostly cater to retirees, never open in the evenings and most clinics are closed on the weekends too, the one nearest me that I was going to stopped opening on the weekend entirely, meaning I had to travel quite a ways. I’m basically poor and the cost in terms of time, travel, energy and food is not insignificant. Meanwhile the high level staff making the cuts to the clinics have secretaries to reply to the emails they solicit from donors. Even though I sent them a long, insightful email, with followups, about my detailing why they are struggling as a young millennial (supposedly an audience they are trying to attract), and after all of it I get phone calls from the vampires minimum twice a week every week, sometimes every day.

simonw 1y ago

Which country are you talking about? I believe it's legal to pay donors on the USA. Presumably a European county given you quoted euros? Looks like the EU encourages member states to encourage unpaid donations: > Furthermore, Member States should take measures to promote Community self-sufficiency in human blood or blood components and to encourage voluntary unpaid donations of blood and blood components. From https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2002/98/oj/eng https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2002/98/oj/eng

boesboes 1y ago
Yeah, I am in the Netherlands. They say paying donors puts them & patients at risk, because it would stimulate donors' to lie about their health when donating and we can't be asked to test blood for everything. And the say it is unethical to pay for human tissues. Except when they are selling it ;)
- ozornin 1y ago
  I have the same story in the same country with presumably the same organization (Sanquin). I used to give blood, but not anymore because I don't find what they're doing ethical.
  - aeternum 1y ago
    Does it just not feel ethical or is one of their claims false? Both of the key claims do seem to have evidence to support them: 1) Paying for blood shifts the socioeconomic distribution of the donor pool. 2) The socioeconomic shift results in more contaminated blood due to greater incidence of drug use and/or related blood-borne diseases that cannot all be tested for with high accuracy.
    - amadeuspagel 1y ago
      The second claim would applies just as much to the US.
- refurb 1y ago
  I can assure you that the Netherlands tests all blood donations. It’s been standard for decades now. People have diseases they don’t know about and if people are ashamed by a disease, they’ll lie even when donating. I just shuddered thinking that donations wouldn’t be tested.
  - reycharles 1y ago
    to be fair they said "test for everything"
    - refurb 1y ago
      If it’s things like CJD or other prion diseases then it’s true they don’t test, but AIDS, hep C, and other common blood borne diseases? They’ve been screening every donation since the 80’s.
n4r9 1y ago
It is legal in the US. In fact you can potentially make a decent bit of money if you're paid $70 per donation and can donate 100 times per year [0]. Don't know if it would be worth the time to travel to the centre and wait in line, for many HN users. [0] https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/finance/how-much-donating-plasma-pays https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/finance/how-much-donatin...
- psini 1y ago
  You can donate every 3~4 days in the US? In France I believe it is only once every 2 months for men and every 3 months for women! edit: confused plasma donation with blood donation; it is still only every 2 weeks for plasma donations over here
- aidenn0 1y ago
  You could sell your plasma twice a week in the town I went to college. We also found that it took significantly less alcohol to get drunk if you had nearly a liter less plasma running through your veins, so it would also save us money in the evening!
- mcculley 1y ago
  My understanding, at least where I live, Florida, is that plasma can be sold, but whole blood must be donated. I still get a $25-$35 gift card every time I donate a pint of whole blood (as close as possible to every 8 weeks).
3pt14159 1y ago
Possibly Canadian, where it isn't legal to buy human blood.

criddell 1y ago

Have you actually looked up what how much a blood bank CEO makes? Is it a lot? Edit: I just did a bit of research and didn't come up with a lot. I found this example [1] where the CEO's total compensation is $414k. That doesn't seem all that high... [1]:https://givefreely.com/charity-directory/nonprofit/ein-570660489/ https://givefreely.com/charity-directory/nonprofit/ein-57066...

boesboes 1y ago
Well, not in the us. here that is considered an unenthical amount for a semi-public servant. In 2011 they made 260k€, which was at then time about 50% more then our prime minister made. Which is used as a norm to limit how much you are allowed to make when working for public services.
- Permit 1y ago
  Is it enough to have three houses and a car collection as you previously stated?
  - skrebbel 1y ago
    Pretty close? Like 80k for your regular living expenses leaves you 180k/y in savings. That's a nice holiday house in France every few years. I mean to really get to a mansion and multiple holiday houses and a bunch of fancy cars you need to work the job for like 15 years, but still. In NL (where I think GP is from) earning that kind of money qualifies you as "seriously rich". Even more so if the salary got inflation-adjusted since 2011.
    - kortilla 1y ago
      Does your country not have taxes? Progressive taxation eats a lot of that quickly and all of the tax benefits of home ownership aren’t available for secondary homes. Additionally, vacation homes in desirable vacation places cost even more than normal homes. Someone making 3x a normal salary is not excessive by any means.
1y ago

-warren 1y ago

Funny data story time. I used to operate a database for a large North American alcohol retailer. We had a problem with our data that said that 30% of the ring from a particular store saw the name "A GIFT FOR YOU" on the CC stripe. After months of bitter accusations of my database being incorrect, we flew someone out to investigate. We found that a block away from the store was a plasma "donation" facility. In order to skirt various laws, when you "donate", you are given a prepaid credit card. The name on the card is "A GIFT FOR YOU". Donators then took that card directly to the alcohol store. All of the data was correct; 30% of the ring from one store was paid by credit cards from the plasma "donation" facility with "A GIFT FOR YOU" on the card. A large reputational battle then commenced as the retailer thought of themselves as a high-end "wine and craft beer" store, when ultimately it turns out Budweiser pays the bills. *edited for clarity

sidewndr46 1y ago
There's an industry piece that points out that a remarkable percentage of beer sales in the US are single cans stored cold, sold at convenience stores. Most residents of the US drive to convenience stores. Given that they are buying 1-2 cans at a time it doesn't take much in the way of inference to figure out that they are buying them to be consumed while driving.
- stickfigure 1y ago
  I'm not following the logic. Why do you assume they aren't drunk at home?
  - sidewndr46 1y ago
    Pretty much everyone in the US owns a working fridge. If you just want to get drunk at home, you just buy a case of beer and leave it in there. It's actually much cheaper to buy beer by the case in most places
    - bombcar 1y ago
      Not if you're the type of poor person who buys lottery tickets, cans of beer, and cigarettes by the single.

e_i_pi_2 1y ago

On the other side, it is legal to pay donors where I am, but then it makes it feel like a waste to donate because you could be getting paid for it

tshaddox 1y ago
No more of a waste than, say, any monetary donation.
- eru 1y ago
  Well, a bit more of a waste, because monetary donations are generally more efficient.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

riversflow 1y ago

Yeah, same. Illegal to pay donors here too. I’ve donated multiple gallons, kinda felt it was my duty as a driver on the road… but at some point I came in to donate and got told they were extra short staffed and I’d have to wait at least an hour. The clinics already have terrible hours that seem to mostly cater to retirees, never open in the evenings and most clinics are closed on the weekends too, the one nearest me that I was going to stopped opening on the weekend entirely, meaning I had to travel quite a ways. I’m basically poor and the cost in terms of time, travel, energy and food is not insignificant. Meanwhile the high level staff making the cuts to the clinics have secretaries to reply to the emails they solicit from donors. Even though I sent them a long, insightful email, with followups, about my detailing why they are struggling as a young millennial (supposedly an audience they are trying to attract), and after all of it I get phone calls from the vampires minimum twice a week every week, sometimes every day.