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Article: Bloody shame: unnecessary regulations are making blood banks run dry.
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IF YOU WALKED into a blood donation center before the HIV crisis, you would have been asked 15 quick questions, then either accepted as a donor or not. Today those questions have burgeoned to almost 50, and the list continues to grow.
The extra caution stems from a colossal error that blood bank officials made two decades ago, when they ignored the early warning signs of HIV and failed to implement appropriate screening and cleaning procedures. As a result, America's blood supply became contaminated and 20,000 people were infected with the deadly virus. It's no surprise that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to take no further chances. But its ...