Blood Drive 2

With the Coronavirus stalking us it is hard to develop focus on anything else. I am 68 and catch knew-moan-ee-ya just thinking about it. If I was forced to spell it correctly, I would have double pneumonia before I could get it on paper. So, given my planned golden years may be abbreviated, I have been looking for ways to contribute.

As I write this, our neck of the woods has no known COVID-19 cases. Given this blessing, it was a natural choice for the Red Cross to do a blood drive here. They are challenged to keep their blood supply above critical levels during normal times and they know they may have to cease operations soon. As an O-Pos universal donor, and someone who may not need my blood much longer, I donated.

As a historical reflection, I remember blood drives in Minneapolis when I was young. Then the Red Cross paid for blood. Men with serious drinking problems would line up to give, donate, and then take the money to buy more booze. I wonder what the blood screening process was then?  And, I wonder what the percentage of blood to brandy was with each donated pint?

Today, the well-trained and friendly Red Cross team has a host of questions for donors to weed out potential undesirable diseases and drugs. Most of the diseases and drugs I scanned were totally unrecognizable. I dutifully struggled through the screening process and finally made it to the final act of getting jabbed.

When the young woman was getting the syringe ready, she asked me if I knew if I was allergic to some incomprehensible word.

 Being old and impatient I asked, “Now, what the hell is that?”

 “The antiseptic we use.”, she answered.

Not having a clue, I replied, “Of course not.”

The world is complicated place today. To survive, and for our young to survive, we must be smarter from beginning to the end. Whether we are young, or we are in our “golden years”, science is the tool to detect and shorten the duration of pandemics or any ailment. Science is also how we know climate change is real and a much greater threat to humanity than COVD-19. We also know climate disruption is solvable with wise governmental leadership.

As we hunker down waiting out this mess, we can still learn about climate science, and science in general. This way we can make good decisions and be good societal contributors.

After giving blood I went to the grocery store to stock up on some essentials. No, not toilet paper. None of my many military survival courses ever included toilet paper as an essential. But I did stock up on a lot of essential chocolate chip cookies.

As the friendly young cashier scanned me through, I smiled and told her, “I am glad your generation will do well. That makes a lot of us old folks happy.”

The National Academies Press has many downloadable short science books. The most recent one I just completed was the 36-page booklet, “Climate Change Causes Evidence & Causes. Update 2020.” If you want a paper copy, they will offer them in time. If you want a paper copy right away, I bet your library will print you out a copy for a reasonable price. Some libraries have curbside delivery. You can read it online or download a free Pdf. of the booklet if you like at: https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25733/climate-change-evidence-and-causes-update-2020

The best to you all in these trying times.

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