During the 1970s and 1980s Pharmaceutical companies knowingly sold products contaminated with Hepatitis C and HIV to Haemophiliacs........Learn with Plainly ...
  • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    Aside: I think it’s total bullshit that in the US among many other countries, people can only donate blood for free and are urged to as a good deed, but companies are free to take your donation and make massive profits from it and financially burden the receiving patient. I don’t think blood donors should get a cut of the profit, that’s not my point, I’m saying that if we’re giving our blood for free as a “good deed” and it’s considered unethical for us to make money from it, then should the companies processing it not be held to the same standard?

      • smotherlove@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        1 year ago

        Obviously, you just charge what it costs and don’t make a profit. Or make a profit that isn’t egregious. The problem really isn’t profit, the problem is the type of profit that would make people stop donating blood if they knew about it.

      • Marxism-Fennekinism@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        How do you afford the food to make the blood without charging for it? Again, why are blood donors expected to do it out of the goodness of their hearts for no reward, but the companies can make as much money from it as possible, forcing people who are dying to pay for their lives?

        We’re also looking at this in a binary fashion which isn’t the only way. Why can’t they just sell the blood at cost or at a low margin to cover their expenses without going into basically extortion of the receiving patient? What’s stopping a competent, democratic government that works for the people from imposing those restrictions on medical companies in the interest of saving lives? Or even nationalising and tax funding blood processing to make it free at the point of access? We’re not going to make blood universally free overnight (that should still be the end goal for humanity as with all essential resources), but when you stand to go bankrupt from a single blood transfusion, it’s a much bigger problem than “merely” charging for blood.

  • flooppoolf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Personally, I think the title is very clickbaity. Yes, people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis. However, today, infections from blood products and medicine are almost unheard of due to the rigorous testing and administration standards that were set in place throughout the decades that have passed since the 70s.

    All needles are new when you get an injection. (No, we don’t use the same needle we stuck in the vial to fill the syringe.)

    All containers must be physically sealed and physically “pass” a visual test. (The clear solution shouldn’t be cloudy, vice versa) 

    Every single vial and blood product has a lot number and ability to trace the exact time and place it was made all the way to where it has been through.

    Blood donors are tested for HIV as they apply. And the one that happens here in the US, and although it is kind of discriminatory, no people that are at a very HIGH risk of becoming infected HIV (including gay men) can donate blood without waiting. Even if you are HIV(-)

    Creating distrust in the medical community is not the way to get people on board with universal healthcare, or socialism. It fuels the beliefs that medical care is a fraud and or not a basic human right because it doesn’t work (doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?).

    Big Pharma is evil because it likes profits, not because it likes deaths. If you can convince everyone that nurturing lives is more valuable than short term profits then humanity can continue evolving.

    Edit: also this is not a cover up, it is a very well known scandal that has caused paranoia to echo past decades within the medical and science community. Probably not very common to hear about because no one wants to hear anything other than “great YOU can’t infect US” because hearing “oh good WE can’t infect YOU” is gonna make everyone yank their arm away and cause massive blood shortages nationwide.