Mask thread, from someone that has had the virus

[JER]

@mvp

I know this sounds lame, but did your friend try calling them?

Agreed - it’s lame.

My friend is an adult, a professional and a business owner and yes, she did make a phone call or two or ten. I actually referred to that in my post that you quoted - this was the parenthetical where I said that the RC refers you back to their online form when you call them.

And seriously, if my friend did not call them multiple times and ‘merely‘ resorted to the online system to which the RC steers you on their site, does it actually excuse the RC’s lack of any action or follow-up? To submit the form, you have to submit your test results so you are actually sending them evidence of your antibodies so it’s not just an expression of interest.

Here’s a timeline for you:

April 13, 2020 - friend has positive antibody test. Calls RC and then, as instructed, fills out online form.

No response - friend is on social media asking people if they have any direct contacts at RC so that she can contact a human

April 18 - friend sends direct email to RC staff person (email provided by online person)

April 21 - friend receives reply saying they don’t have her IgM result. Friend emails immediately to say the IgM result is printed on the test results just below the IgG. We assumed this job had been given to a clueless volunteer - there is no way you can miss it. Resends lab results.

No further response from RC - friend does more follow-up, tagging RC on social media, publicizing that there’s been no response, asking people if they’ve been able to donate plasma. I should point out that friend has sizeable social media following and presence in media on news/chat shows, facebook live promos, etc.

Meanwhile friend has been referred to the plasma convalescent study at UCLA. Does screen appts, donates plasma.

And then…

Last night - June 29, 2020 - 10 weeks after contacting the Red Cross - an email arrives!

Thank you for submitting a request to donate COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma. Great news - your form submission indicates you may be a candidate for convalescent plasma donation to help treat patients…

Then they refer her to one of their partner blood centers.

If they’re just going to wait 10 weeks and refer you elsewhere, the RC could save a lot of time and at least a few lives by putting the regional partner blood center info on the website and telling potential plasma donors to contact them directly.

None of this makes the RC look good and I’d be very shocked if anyone would choose to defend or excuse their response or lack thereof.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

@gardenie

I did get pointed out and could have been eliminated for having a mask around my neck with open neck shirt. You are not supposed to have anything around your neck with open collar shirt. The day before I wore a gaiter in a similar fashion with my coat and that was fine. Just pay attention to the minutiae of the rules.

Yes…you have to zip or button up your shirt…but then you absolutely can wear a gaiter in a recognized show. In most schooling shows…it shouldn’t matter…but they all have their own rules.

[OverandOnward]

It would be pretty easy to add the mask thing to the rules as part of the covid protocol. Just another item that masks are exempt from the standard rules for dress. A mask can be worn in any fashion, in any class, even if it is down.

[SonnysMom]

@mvp

Yanno, if someone could give me a controlled case of COVID-19 so that I could recover and then donate convalescent blood plasma rich in antibodies, I’d do it.

I’m a big fan of donating blood and blood products. I used to donate platelets, but I haven’t since this whole shebang started as I can’t wrap my mind around spending 4 hours in a room/sealed HVAC system with other people. Yet my heart breaks for the people who still need platelets for treatment. Leukemia doesn’t take days off.

Do you guys think antibodies are effective in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19? Otherwise, do you think I’m wrong to be so suspicious of conditions in a donation room at the American Red Cross?

Sorry for the divergence into non-eventing stuff. It’s just that this seems to be a place that has collected some experts. Thanks!

I have given platelets twice since Covid. They temp test you at the door. I was required to wear a mask correctly. Same normal screening plus another temp test. In my center you would select a DVD to watch. They have upgraded to Hulu. Everyone in the facility was masked. It is set up now for every other bed for spacing. We have to bring our own blanket and not use one of their warmed blankets. All the staff is gloved. Lots of wiping everything down. I feel better giving platelets rather than blood since once I am unhooked and bandaged I can leave. No hanging in the canteen area for the 15 minutes. They put the hand squeeze things in a new glove before they hand it to you.

I am scheduled to give again July 25. Getting scheduled for evening or weekends has been tough. Due to the spacing requirements they have less slots available.

I was very comfortable with the precautions at my center.

[caryledee]

@OverandOnward

It would be pretty easy to add the mask thing to the rules as part of the covid protocol. Just another item that masks are exempt from the standard rules for dress. A mask can be worn in any fashion, in any class, even if it is down.

Yes, USEF is doing presidential modifications for rules that need modifications during this time period. If a judge or steward gives you grief about something minor like wardrobe stuff, it would be beneficial for everyone to alert USEF of this.

[mvp]

@SonnysMom

I have given platelets twice since Covid. They temp test you at the door. I was required to wear a mask correctly. Same normal screening plus another temp test. In my center you would select a DVD to watch. They have upgraded to Hulu. Everyone in the facility was masked. It is set up now for every other bed for spacing. We have to bring our own blanket and not use one of their warmed blankets. All the staff is gloved. Lots of wiping everything down. I feel better giving platelets rather than blood since once I am unhooked and bandaged I can leave. No hanging in the canteen area for the 15 minutes. They put the hand squeeze things in a new glove before they hand it to you.

I am scheduled to give again July 25. Getting scheduled for evening or weekends has been tough. Due to the spacing requirements they have less slots available.

I was very comfortable with the precautions at my center.

Thank you for weighing in. I do think the Red Cross where I have donated in the past is careful. I’m in South Carolina where the cases are rising, but our state isn’t as bad as AZ yet… maybe now is the time.

All the rest of y’all: Did you know that platelets have a shelf-life of just 5 days? That means the need is constant. Also, I think it would make the job of running the logistics for this supply of blood products super interesting.

[frugalannie]

@mvp

All the rest of y’all: Did you know that platelets have a shelf-life of just 5 days? That means the need is constant. Also, I think it would make the job of running the logistics for this supply of blood products super interesting.

Thank you for this mvp. I worked in a blood bank for many years putting myself through school. I was on the “distribution” end: worked in a hospital typing, crossing, distributing many blood products. For those who don’t know, a donation of one unit of blood (500mls) can be used in so many ways: whole blood, just the red cells, just the platelets, just the plasma etc. Plasma can be frozen and thawed as needed. Contains lots of necessary proteins and elements for the body to function. Platelets are funny little cells that are integral in the clotting process and why if you nick yourself you don’t bleed to death. One dose of aspirin nukes your whole platelet cohort, which is why you aren’t to take aspirin for a week before any planned procedures and why people who are prone to clots take an aspirin a day. But about 1/7th are replaced every day in a healthy body so by the end of the week you’re back to where you started (and a donation never takes all of the platelets in your body).

The logistics of blood banking fascinated me. Whole blood has a shelf life of about 3 weeks, maybe more with new techniques. We always used the oldest blood first, but had such high turnover that it was usually only a few days old. Rare blood types are harder to get, but also more rarely used. Sometimes they outdated which was bad, but also meant no one had needed them (good!). The Connecticut Red Cross provided us with all of the blood we used, at no charge to the patient. It was a great example of donors doing good and saving lives. One case comes to mind: a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. 163 units of blood were used in a few hours, but the patient lived. Without those 163 people being willing to donate, the story would have been much different. All of that blood was collected and tested by the Red Cross.

I can’t respond to the issues a poster upthread had with the Red Cross not getting back to them because my knowledge of them is ancient history. Perhaps the new mandate for collecting convalescent plasma wasn’t yet worked out in their system. But I am sorry you had a bad experience.

[trubandloki]

@frugalannie

I can’t respond to the issues a poster upthread had with the Red Cross not getting back to them because my knowledge of them is ancient history. Perhaps the new mandate for collecting convalescent plasma wasn’t yet worked out in their system. But I am sorry you had a bad experience.

This was my thought.
From what I understand (simply from talking to people while donating, I have no inside information), the Red Cross takes rules very seriously. Every little thing has a rule associated with it. Which makes sense considering what they do. Following the rules to the letter is how they are all trained.

I can totally see them not having a rule/system for something new and that leaves the worker bees struggling to know how to move forward.
Not that they do not want to think for themselves but they work in a place where thinking for yourself is not allowed because of the safety their system provides, that it is required to provide.

[JER]

@frugalannie

I can’t respond to the issues a poster upthread had with the Red Cross not getting back to them because my knowledge of them is ancient history. Perhaps the new mandate for collecting convalescent plasma wasn’t yet worked out in their system. But I am sorry you had a bad experience.

It was my friend and not me.

She didn’t have a ‘bad’ experience with the Red Cross. She had NO experience because they took 10 weeks to get back to her. By then she’d joined another convalescent plasma program.

To put this in context, the Red Cross was all over social and news media seeking plasma donors. When my friend had her positive antibody test, the techs at the lab said ‘Oh good, now you can call the RC!’ And that was exactly my friend’s purpose in getting an antibody test - she’d seen the Red Cross appeal and wanted to find out if she could help.

She called - yes, called - the RC right away and was told that the application form was on the website, that she should fill it out, submit the form and her test results and they’d contact her.

For several weeks, she called, emailed, etc. If she called, she was told ‘You need to fill out the form…’ and when she said that, they said ‘then wait for someone to contact you‘.

Meanwhile, lots of people in Southern California are sick and dying of Covid-19. Lots of people. Families are on social media begging for private plasma donors. Begging. And some days my friend would go on social media and the people looking for plasma were now mourning a death in the family.

10 weeks go by before the Red Cross sends a response that says she ‘might’ be eligible to be a donor and to call their partner blood center.

By then, my friend had been put in touch with the UCLA lab. She called one day, went in the next day, donated plasma the next week (plasma donors are on a spaced schedule so that stocks don’t run out).

It’s not like the UCLA lab is a back alley operation. I’m quite certain they take rules as seriously as trubandloki claims the RC does.

There’s nothing that justifies a 10 WEEK response time from the RC for life-saving plasma donors during a pandemic. Nothing. Especially if the RC is running media campaigns to find Covid-19 plasma donors. What this actually means is that the RC is getting people - people who want to donate plasma - to fill out their application and then not following up. So potential plasma donors are thinking that they’ve signed up to a program and they’re waiting for a call. Not everyone is going to be like my friend and find an actual functioning donor program.

As I said before, if all the RC does is take your submission form, sit on it for 10 weeks and then refer you to a partner blood center (where you’ll have to go through the screening process, etc.), there’s no reason why the RC doesn’t put the blood center contact info on their website so you can start the process 10 weeks sooner.

frugalannie, there’s no excusing it by saying maybe the RC hasn’t ‘worked out their system yet’. If they don’t have a system in place for plasma donors, they shouldn’t be pretending that they do. They should be referring donors with life-saving plasma to blood centers that are actually doing the work.

It’s a pandemic. Sheesh.

[frugalannie]

@JER

there’s no excusing it by saying maybe the RC hasn’t ‘worked out their system yet’. If they don’t have a system in place for plasma donors, they shouldn’t be pretending that they do. They should be referring donors with life-saving plasma to blood centers that are actually doing the work.

Absolutely agreed, and I apologize for not getting the facts right.