The staff were pretty kind all around, facility was clean.
The dystopian aspect was how many people I saw denied, because they had donated yesterday. You can give twice a week, but have to wait a day in between. I saw at least four or five people get turned away, and they were all pretty upset. The line was extremely long - there are tons of people desperate enough to wait in line for hours to go through the painful process of having their blood sapped out.
I also got a preloaded card as my payment, which has a ton of fees associated with it - I’ll get charged if I use it at an atm or check the balance. I know these cash cards are often also used to pay people who work at like McDonald’s - it just seems like so much of the US is designed to nickel and dime the shit out of the poor.
Another thing I noticed is that you can’t donate if you are on PREP or PEP. The info screen says that you shouldn’t discontinue those meds to donate - but if you are in the situation where you need food, what’s the choice going to be there?
Idk how it works in the us but in Germany you can always anonomously order them to destroy your sample afterwards (you get a little number which is accociated to your sample but not your person). So If you’re reallx desperate you could just lie about that, give the blood/plasma, take the money and have it destroyed afterwards.
Clip from a documentary about this stuff: https://youtu.be/HsvdHYd8BMg?t=1539
The 1-2 minutes after this timestamp are enough for me already and it gets so much worse the more you read about this topic.
Often the blood doesnt even go to actual people and instead is used by pharma companies for research unbeknownst to the donors, while actual hospitals and blood banks are running out of blood.