On last night’s Watch What Happens Live!, Andy Cohen railed against the ‘antiquated and discriminatory guidelines’ he’s encountered when trying to give blood as part of a plasma donation program.
Cohen was still told he was ‘ineligible to donate blood because I am a gay man,’ despite the growing need for plasma from corona survivors.
‘Tonight I’ve got a bit of a rant, so please indulge me,’ he began.
Cohen went on to say that since recovering from the coronavirus earlier this month, he ‘wanted to see if there was something I could do to help people who were infected.’
But after signing up for a plasma donation program, Cohen’s blood was denied.
It was at that point that Andy mentioned the ‘antiquated and discriminatory guidelines by the FDA,’ which he then said were in place in order to prevent the transmission of HIV, from a time when much less was understood about that disease.
All that has changed now, however.
Cohen pointed out, ‘all donated blood is screened for HIV,’ before adding that now, ‘a rapid HIV test can be done in 20 minutes or less.’
For Andy, it all leads to antiquated stigma that’s still in place, which is especially problematic at a time when ‘the FDA says there is an urgent need for plasma from [Covid-19] survivors,’ as he put it.
‘Even the new relaxed rules require gay men to abstain from sex for three months [as opposed to the previous cap of one full year], whether they’re in a monogamous relationship or not before giving blood,
‘Why are members from my community being excluded from helping out when so many people are sick and dying?’ Cohen asked. ‘Maybe because we’re valuing stigma over science.’
Toward the end of his statement on the matter, Andy said, ‘My blood could save a life, but instead it’s over here boiling.
‘It is bad enough that quarantine has us wondering what day it is, I’m sitting here wondering what year it is,’ he concluded, before adding, ‘We need to think about this and do better.’
Indeed!
Watch below.
