I Recovered from Covid-19. But I Can’t Donate My Plasma Because I’m Gay

motherjones.com

18 points·tony101··5 comments

For public health and public trust of the blood supply there's a 12 month deferral to donate after a male has sex with another male.

After you come in contact with a covid infected individual, for public health there's a 14 day quarantine.

No testing is perfect, false negatives could lead to disease transmission.

Sure, that's the regulation. And sure, no test is perfect. But if I, a female, have sex with a bisexual male who has had sex with other men recently, I can give blood. I, being female, can have 'risky' sexual behavior, including things like anal sex on one-night stands, and give blood - yet a gay male in a stable relationship with one person cannot.

Not to mention that the reason for this stems from AIDS in the 80's - and the outlook for catching HIV is lower than it has ever been. And I'll point out that being gay does not prevent one from donating in other countries.

This restriction is nothing but ill-informed policy and discrimination.

This is incorrect, we would ask "have you had sex with a man who has had sex with another man in the last 12 months". This got around the case you dealt with.

What about homosexual men who are in monogamous relationships? Clearly they pose less of a risk than some heterosexual men who are promiscuous.

There are also many people on PrEP, which lowers the risk of HIV infection significantly (to close to 0%).

This is incorrect, we would ask "have you had sex with a man who has had sex with another man in the last 12 months". This got around the case you dealt with.

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