gave at the office (needles)...

[jay]

Gave blood this morning... I hadn't realized that it had been over a year since the last time. I'm slipping... lots of travel conflicts with onsite blood drives, I guess. So now I'm sporting a large purple armband... ;).

No flu shot afterward (I was too late), but I'll get one Friday when I have more blood drawn for my annual comprehensive physical (they do complete blood-chemistry and blood-pathogen panels, too, as well as screen for substances). I'd better avoid poppyseed bagels for a few days ;).

Time to catch up on travel vouchers, get my new badge, and then start the next round of proposals (due a week from Friday).

Comments

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

hrmph. They'll take your blood. Mine they won't touch with a 10 foot pole.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kinda have the same response.

(but you *do* have the fresh ink)

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought about the fresh ink, I have so many other reasons they won't come near it.. :)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Well, they did ask me lots of questions about travel, especially Morocco... the total-time-spent-in-Europe disqualification criteria is now 5 years cumulatively, as long as no more than 5 months of it was in the UK.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about the MSM angle

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

Yay for giving blood. If I tell the truth, they won't touch mine. And that's even more amazing considering that I can and do take tests and -know- my status for any blood bone viruses we have tests for. Yeah, I had one contact with MSM back in 1992, and that in and of itself would disqualify me, even if the whole rest of my life between then and now hadn't happened.

I still don't know what to do about that either. I know people need blood, but I want the rules changed to reflect medical science and not prejudice and ignorance. What can we do to get these rules changed? What are the steps?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

(nods) It brings up mixed feelings, especially among my friends... it manages to simultaneously trigger both community service (good) and het-privilege (not so good).

Although for females, a given contact with a MSM is a one-year, not permanent deferral (same class as for contact with a sexworker, Haitian or IV drug user).

The rules are not based on medical science, they are politically-manipulated to marginalize groups that the administration and their conservative friends dislike. And it is getting worse, not improving, as viz. the FDA's refusal to abide by their own licensing guidelines for birth control.