Text Julian Lucas
Published July 27, 2021 6:00am PST
The year 2020 was considered the worst year economically in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Last year 20.5 million people in the U.S. lost their jobs, and the U.S. population is now only slowly making its way out of a pandemic. We can only wonder if the recovery will be complete. To compensate, even though unemployment rates are declining, U.S. citizens are flocking to blood plasma donation sites, giving blood to augment their low incomes.
The concerns over this phenomenon are serious. The plasma industry targets vulnerable low-income communities that are already struggling in other multiple ways. Researcher Heather Olsen collected the data that shows that plasma collection centers are most often concentrated in low-income or poor neighborhoods. See her 2018 lecture given at the International Health Congress at Oxford University.
Nonetheless, plasma is an extremely valuable commodity because it saves lives. Plasma, a yellowish liquid that makes up more than half of blood's volume, is a crucial component of some medical therapies. Hospitals rely on donors of blood plasma to provide blood transfusions for burns and liver failure. It is also used by pharmaceutical companies to create life-saving pharmaceuticals. Plasma donations meant for medicine do not need to be identified as voluntary or compensated, unlike those collected for transfusion. Significantly, there are no alternatives. Blood plasma cannot be replicated in a lab.
Since 2005, the plasma industry has skyrocketed, centers have increased across America. Sales have nearly tripled in 2017 from 2000 to over $21 billion globally. The United States continues to allow paying people for their blood while many countries have stopped the practice. For instance, selling plasma has been banned in Mexico since 1987.
According to a report completed by market research, the market for medicines made from blood plasma will note a staggering increase by 2023 - the undercarriage of this lucrative commercial enterprise is its dependence on the blood of very low income or poor people.
People who donate, which are usually people who struggle to get by can make between $20 to $50 per visit. A visit can last almost 2 hours. This may add up to a few hundred dollars a month, something substantial for someone without any additional revenue.
Sitting back, it all demands closer examination. In the language of blood collection, blood givers are described as donors, even though the transactions are most often based on monetary exchange. Are plasma centers preying upon people desperate for money? Are plasma centers legitimate businesses or just poverty pimps?
Why do city leaders continue to use the buzz word “progressive” to describe themselves, but continue to allow entities that prey on the poor and working class?
Julian Lucas, is fine art photographer, visual journalist, and creative strategist. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking homeless veterans to housing. Julian has lived in Chicago, Inglewood, Portland, and the suburbs of Los Angeles County including Pomona.
