Covid-19 antibody testing of blood donations

Status
Not open for further replies.
I give blood with oneblood.org who also started antibody testing recently. I was negative for antibodies - kinda wished for positive.
 
Coincidentally DW and I are donating this afternoon and just found out about the COVID testing yesterday. I doubt I have any anti-bodies, but it will be interesting to know.

BTW, blood banks are in desperate need for donations. After signing up on line for this Red Cross drive, we each got 3 reminders. One by email, one by text, and one was a phone call from a live person (not a robocall).
 
I wish mine (Community Blood Center) did. According to their web site they don't. Red Cross is testing in our area.
'
 
Just so you know, you now must schedule an appointment to donate. I was hoping to do a walk-in this afternoon at a donation center but I thought I'd call and ask. Because of social distancing all donations must be by appointment only. Makes sense, glad I checked before I went up there.

So I have an appointment for tomorrow, late afternoon. I used to donate regularly and kind of got out of the habit. The last time I tried I was deferred because I had just taken the last dose of a 10 day antibiotic. Sometimes I get deferred for hemoglobin. So I hope I can complete the donation tomorrow.
 
I've long been ashamed of myself for not donating; my last donation was over 5 years ago. My Dad was a record donator in our area, giving over 55 gallons of whole blood over his lifetime followed by at least as many platelet donations. He changed after Mom got cancer and he learned how valuable platelets are for cancer patients.

Maybe the antibody test will be the motivation for me to get off my heinie and give.
 
Not ashamed, but a bit embarrassed. I have small veins in my elbows, hard to access. Last time I tried to give blood, about 20 years ago, they took about an hour to get just half a unit from me, and they told me to never come back.

OTOH, DW has been a platelet donor for decades -- many, many gallons of credit.
 
I would love to donate, and used to, but mad cow rules say I can't.
 
Aerides said:
I would love to donate, and used to, but mad cow rules say I can't.
Click to expand...

Just got back from donating, and was wondering about all the exclusions for people living in different countries going back to 1980. Totally forgot about the mad cow thing.

I have to fess up. This is my first donation in at least 15 years. Up until then I was a regular, with over 5 gallons donated. I think it is time to be a regular again. I noticed many folks many years my senior there.

And, Oh by the way, they were giving out St. Louis Cardinals tee shirts to all donors today. :dance:
 
I donated on Thursday. It was my 94th donation! Just got the Covid-19 antibody results in my Red Cross account and I'm negative. Not a surprise.

My donation was fine, no waiting and no issues except having to talk with the phlebotomists through our masks (awkward but important) and my blood drive was giving way T-shirts. My DH loves these and I know his size so I got it for him.
 
Aerides said:
I would love to donate, and used to, but mad cow rules say I can't.
Click to expand...


The FDA has recently updated its eligibility criteria for blood donation. One of the changes is that potential donors who spent time in Europe during the "mad cow disease" years will soon be able to donate blood. This is from the Red Cross website:

April 2, 2020 — The American Red Cross issued the following statement regarding updated FDA guidance to address the urgent need for blood during the pandemic:
“The American Red Cross is pleased that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated its eligibility guidance regarding men who have sex with men, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) or “mad cow” and malaria. These changes will potentially allow more individuals to donate and help ensure blood collection organizations across the country continue to meet patient needs throughout this pandemic and beyond.

The Red Cross will work aggressively to implement the many eligibility changes outlined by the FDA as soon as possible. This process includes potentially thousands of individuals and involves complex system updates that will take time to implement. Based off this breaking news, we are working to develop a reinstatement process to share with potential donors in the near future. We appreciate your support during this transition."
_______________________________________________________________
I checked with the organization that takes blood donations in our area (not the Red Cross), and they said it will take a while before they can implement this new guidance. But within 6 months or so, they should be able to take blood from these previously prohibited categories of people.
 
boog said:
I give blood with oneblood.org who also started antibody testing recently. I was negative for antibodies - kinda wished for positive.
Click to expand...

The more I read about these antibody tests, the more it seems that they really don't tell you much. Even beyond the issue of false positives/false negatives, they are now saying that even people who do not appear to have the antibodies may still be resistant to future infection with the virus. That's because there are other components in the human immune system that may provide immunity, other than just the antibodies they are looking for. This coronavirus is unlike anything we have seen previously, and they just don't know a lot about it yet, unfortunately.

In an article I was reading the other day, two people who tested positive for COVID-19 decided to get tested a couple months afterward for the antibodies. They both tested negative. They both then got retested, and one tested negative, and one positive. So.......I am personally not putting a lot of stock in the results from these tests, at least not at this point.
 
CardsFan said:
I have to fess up. This is my first donation in at least 15 years. Up until then I was a regular, with over 5 gallons donated. I think it is time to be a regular again. I noticed many folks many years my senior there.
Click to expand...

In addition to helping others who need blood, there is another pretty good reason to donate. Frequent blood donors live longer than those who do not donate blood. There is some evidence that this may be due to the reduction in iron (ferritin) levels that happens when you donate blood. Many older guys, in particular, have ferritin levels that are not healthy. Donating blood drops your ferritin, and may thus have a protective effect.

I've been donating blood for a long time, but I have to admit that since I had problems with my health due to very high ferritin, I now donate more frequently than I used to (about 3X per year for me now).

https://roguehealthandfitness.com/blood-donors-live-longer/
 
RAE said:
The FDA has recently updated its eligibility criteria for blood donation. One of the changes is that potential donors who spent time in Europe during the "mad cow disease" years will soon be able to donate blood. This is from the Red Cross website:

But you have to check with your own blood bank. Ours said their "legal" dept had to check over the new info release to determine how they would handle it. She said check back in a month or two. I suggest a call before a trip.
Click to expand...
 
lucky penny said:
Recent article suggests that the presence of antibodies may be short-lived, especially for people who were asymptomatic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/health/coronavirus-antibodies.html?searchResultPosition=1
Click to expand...

Yes, I read this also. And now even more evidence has come out showing that people who were infected with the virus may have immunity, even if their antibody test was negative. That is because antibodies are only one component of the immune system........there are also "T cells" which often provide longer-lasting immunity, and "B cells", which can rapidly ramp up antibody production in response to an invading virus. It appears that some people who had the virus do have these specialized cells, especially the T cells:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-immunity-covid-higher-shown.html
 
Yeah, this is complicated. But it shows that the antibody test is not reliable for determining if someone had been infected in the past. Which is unfortunate for folks wanting to confirm that they had already had it.
 
audreyh1 said:
Yeah, this is complicated. But it shows that the antibody test is not reliable for determining if someone had been infected in the past. Which is unfortunate for folks wanting to confirm that they had already had it.
Click to expand...

Yep. I had the antibody test recently, and it was negative. I was somewhat surprised, because I had virtually all of the symptoms of COVID-19 in early March, including the loss of my sense of taste for a few days. I've had influenza, and whatever I had was not influenza. I got better in a week, did not have to go to the hospital. Based on this new info. on T cells and B cells, I still think I probably had it. No way to know for sure, though.
 
My wife and I were quite sick in March, tested positive in May and have been donating convalescent plasma since then. It feels good to be doing something worthwhile with the experience.
 
RAE said:
Yep. I had the antibody test recently, and it was negative. I was somewhat surprised, because I had virtually all of the symptoms of COVID-19 in early March, including the loss of my sense of taste for a few days. I've had influenza, and whatever I had was not influenza. I got better in a week, did not have to go to the hospital. Based on this new info. on T cells and B cells, I still think I probably had it. No way to know for sure, though.
Click to expand...

Antibodies are generally disappearing around 60 days. If you had them, they may have been too low to measure by the time you were tested.
 
Dranoel said:
My wife and I were quite sick in March, tested positive in May and have been donating convalescent plasma since then. It feels good to be doing something worthwhile with the experience.
Click to expand...

Looks like you are in Central Florida? I was also in Central Florida in March, when my wife and I both got what we still think was COVID-19.
 
Dranoel said:
My wife and I were quite sick in March, tested positive in May and have been donating convalescent plasma since then. It feels good to be doing something worthwhile with the experience.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for donating convalescent plasma!!!
 
Dranoel said:
My wife and I were quite sick in March, tested positive in May and have been donating convalescent plasma since then. It feels good to be doing something worthwhile with the experience.
Click to expand...

How much have your antibodies decreased since you started donating? The person here that had very high antibodies became ineligible to donate at 60 days because his antibody levels dropped below the minimum.
 
I donated right before the COVID stuff got crazy (March?) and have an appointment next week. Fingers crossed, as they've been weirdly overbooked almost every time I've tried to go in the last year and we get turned away 99% of the time even with an appointment.

I don't think I've been sick or even exposed as we've been careful about going out and wearing masks way before they even suggested it and had tons of sanitizer already used before this all started (and got really meticulous with the hand washing too), but should be interesting to see what our results are.
 
Last edited:
I donated yesterday but I'm well past 60 days from when I suspect I had it. I'll let y'all know- they said it would be a week at least.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

easysurfer
Pfizer Covid Pill Authorized
Replies
13
Views
1K
Gumby
Gumby
Katsmeow
  • Locked
Covid in the House (I'm negative)
2
Replies
39
Views
4K
Sanstar
S
Bryan Barnfellow
Frightening Health News for my Dear Wife
2 3 4
Replies
94
Views
10K
old medic
O
O
AAHHH The JOYS of a Vacation
Replies
14
Views
1K
old medic
O
gcgang
Omicron/Covid timeline to manifest
2 3
Replies
54
Views
6K
Alan
Alan

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom