o7 Amerikkka

I actually donate about twice a week to help pay bills. I agree with people hearing about the practice of blood for money and saying "that doesn't sound healthy.". I actually feel awful for 24 hours or more post donation.

It's also really cool you don't get saline anymore because the US is out of it. Just a Powerade and goldfish so you don't pass out driving home

  • Hexamerous [none/use name]
    ·
    20 hours ago

    Lol, it's not a "donation" it's a harvest. Capital is literally harvesting people for their bodily fluids under economic duress and later selling it back to them at jacked up prices when they're in medical duress.

    America really going full George Oreo 1984 with this shit: "Yes, I'm off to 'donate' some blood and then swing by my 'food bank' to withdrawing some kcal from my savings account, you see."

    • june [she/her]
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Indeed, but it is worth saying that most blood plasma is used to develop drugs needed by people with (in some cases hereditary) diseases who would die without them. It takes something like ~130 plasma donations to produce a one year supply of life saving medication for someone with primary immunodeficiency which effects 1 in 2000 people

      Even under communism we would need mass plasma donations to facilitate keeping those people alive and healthy, until we figure out how to manufacture antibodies in a lab without a human based donation. Hopefully it would be done with better consent (not under duress)

    • ProletarianDictator [none/use name]
      ·
      19 hours ago

      Capital is literally harvesting people for their bodily fluids under economic duress and later selling it back to them at jacked up prices when they're in medical duress.

      holy fuck. what a potent way to present this

  • SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    23 hours ago

    It's also really cool you don't get saline anymore because the US is out of it. Just a Powerade and goldfish so you don't pass out driving home

    Jesus Christ what-the-hell

  • peeonyou [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    20 hours ago

    that's pretty much how i survived college.. without plasma donations i would never have eaten

  • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]
    ·
    22 hours ago

    I used to get so cold in the plasma center as my blood was pumped back into me oh my god it was awful

  • tombruzzo [none/use name]
    ·
    17 hours ago

    In Australia you actually donate blood, for free, and people still do it.

    Granted the material conditions here aren't quite as bad yet

    • tocopherol [any]
      ·
      10 hours ago

      A lot of people do that in the US as well, most people I know have donated blood a couple times for no pay. It's simpler to donate blood than plasma. Not many people would donate plasma for free so they pay for it, but it is kind of ridiculous that people are desperate to sell their vital fluids.

    • neroiscariot [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Blood or plasma? I donate blood when I can because I want to, and it takes a few minutes.

      Plasma takes about an hour because the process is more intense and way more uncomfortable

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    Liberals solidarity tankies

    “America is uniquely bad.”

    Seriously, out of all the shitty western nations Amerikkka has to be by far the worst, despite ukkk’s best efforts.

  • Hexboare [they/them]
    ·
    19 hours ago

    Just a Powerade and goldfish so you don't pass out driving home

    Soy sauce is used instead

  • CocteauChameleons [none/use name]
    ·
    1 day ago

    It's also really cool you don't get saline anymore because the US is out of it

    No your donation center is scamming their patrons

    • neroiscariot [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      22 hours ago

      I believe it's both. There is a "shortage" which I take is just one more step towards the country falling completely apart due to inept greed: https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2024-12-04-fda-says-empty-iv-bag-shortage-expected-last-through-march

      But I also know that it's cheaper to give people a sports drink and crackers, and people will accept it, because they need the money

        • tombruzzo [none/use name]
          ·
          17 hours ago

          I read an article there are all these bullshit health centres popping up that offer saline for anti aging, detox, and hangovers.

          They're using so much saline that hospitals are forced to ration it so rich dumbasses can have expensive urine

        • CTHlurker [he/him]
          ·
          18 hours ago

          I think something like a third or up to half of the total supply was produced in Puerto Rico or some south eastern state that got destroyed in a hurricane during the first trump admin. So that is one disaster/problem you can very squarely blame on Trump.

    • ComradeMonotreme [she/her, he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      Honestly sounds weird to give saline after a blood/plasma donation if someone is fit and healthy. The Red Cross doesn't do that in Australia (and it's not paid just voluntarily). Just give you a bunch of water and something to eat. If your gut is working, oral replacement of lost volume is pretty quick.

      Probably the difference in the US is the standards are lower and the people they're taking plasma from a less healthier, done more frequently, more vulnerable etc.

  • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
    ·
    23 hours ago

    Wait wait I signed up on some site promising me 800 bucks if I donate plasma like 7 times in a month.

    Should I not be doing that?

    • neroiscariot [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      22 hours ago

      I do it, and it gets me the money I need to pay bills. If you can zone out, donate, and bounce it's not the worst thing you can do for money.

      I just get a bit angry when I think about too hard. The other comment is correct, the sign up bonuses are decent,.and I currently use the same donation center

      • peeonyou [he/him]
        ·
        20 hours ago

        until they poke through a vein and your arm swells up for a week

        i think i got some kind of disease from doing this so often tbh.. i get these awful rashes on the insides of my elbows that i never had prior to doing the donations

    • godlessworm [comrade/them]
      ·
      23 hours ago

      ive done this thru biolife. imo its worth it for those visits but once you get all that paid out it drops to like 20 dollars per donation, and it takes like 2-3 hrs for the whole process so it becomes not worth it.

      also biolife, the company i used was constantly trying to not apply coupons you came in to redeem. the last time i went they didnt apply my coupon, i went back and told them and she “fixed it” but surprise surprise it was never fixed so i never went back

  • Parzivus [any]
    ·
    1 day ago

    Genuine question, do you not spend a fuckton more on food if you donate plasma regularly? Do they pay so much that it covers the extra food and then some?

    • neroiscariot [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      21 hours ago

      I try to treat myself to a sandwich or something after, then pass out. It really makes me tired, so I do it after my 9-5. Weirdly, to your point, you think of the food your craving after and how much of your fluid is cost lol

  • NSRXN@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    1 day ago

    in the gloom of mighty cities

    amid the roar of whirling Wheels

    we are toiling on like chattle slaves of old

    and our masters hope to keep us

    ever thus beneath their heels

    and to coin our very lifeblood into gold