Why is there a blood shortage if there are always donation drives and family members are always there willing to provide for their loved ones if ever blood donation is needed?
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1. Blood cannot be stored for long periods of time. In the US, they can only store it for 42 days.
2. This is made worse in the winter because of the weather and in summer because they cannot have blood drives in schools.
3. Only 37% of the population is eligible to donate blood. Granted, a large percentage of the ineligible are children. Having said that, there are very strict (and some are completely outdated) rules about who can give blood. In the US, it was not until recently that Europeans were banned from donating. Gay and bisexual men are still banned from donating unless they have been abstinent for 3 months (granted, the FDA has proposed getting rid of this rule because it has made zero sense since the late 90s). This rule in particular is why I cannot give because my husband and I both happen to be men. Meanwhile, a straight person can have sex with as many people as they want and never worry about being banned. I could go on an entire tangent on this idiotic policy, but I will save you trouble and just say that it should be lifted.
4. The next problem is COVID-19. Since COVID-19, the world has gotten more digital, so it is now much harder to get donors. On top of this, workplaces still are not having blood drives (I used to call in sick on days my workplace had blood drives, but I have not had to worry about that since COVID-19 and we stopped having blood drives). On top of this, more people now work from home.
5. Another major problem is staffing shortages. Since the pandemic, people have begun to leave their job, and just by looking it up, blood donation agencies are not an exception. I found [this](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/27/american-red-cross-workers-blood-shortage) from the Guardian which goes into more detail about how the American Red Cross was paying workers poorly, so many started to leave.
6. You cannot donate blood directly to someone. You can donate to a company like the American Red Cross, Vitalant, etc., but the odds that it will go to whomever you are wanting to help are low. Even if you could, certain injuries may take many blood units.
I wrote an essay about the moronic MSM (men who have sex with men) blood donation deferral in college, so that is how I know so much about this. I live in the US, so some of these may only pertain to us and not elsewhere.
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