Tuesday, June 16, 2020

The blood shortage hoax

The NY Times reports:
As the coronavirus spread across the country, the nation’s blood supply faced a dire shortage. ...

Chris Hrouda, president of biomedical services for the American Red Cross, which collects about 40 percent of the country’s blood donations, calls it a “staggering” drop in supply.

“Our inventories have been cut in half,” Mr. Hrouda said. “We’re starting to get into a critical situation.”
I am pretty sure that this is a hoax.

Whenever I see an article start by declaring a "shortage", I scan it for data on how much the price has gone up. Simple economics tells us that whenever there is a shortage, the price goes up. Always. It is the law of supply and demand.

The price has not gone up. There is no shortage. The Red Cross has excess blood supplies that it usually have to sell overseas to get rid of it.

Occasionally I hear someone say we have a shortage of nurses, engineers, teachers, or some other occupation. But in nearly all cases, the salaries have not gone up at all, proving that there is no shortage.

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