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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8074536" data-attributes="member: 177">That's not a tragedy.  That's a safeguard.This is a common thing, not at all limited to this epidemic - folks saying, "I wanna help!" and then doing something that is not in the least bit helpful.  You see it a lot in disaster relief.  People try to donate physical goods - toilet paper, bottled water, or whatever they've seen on the internet is "what they need".  Doing that in, say, NJ, and expecting the aid organization to gather, inventory, manage, ship it cross country, and distribute random physical goods - many of which are bulky and cheap and could be sourced near the disaster at lesser cost is woefully inefficient.  It is distinctly not helpful, and would increase the cost of relief efforts without increasing positive impact.  The relief organizations tell folks plainly - if you want to help, here is where you can donate.  But they still usually wind up with mounds of physical goods.Random donation of plasma to... someone, is not helpful.  And the people at the blood bank are busy taking blood and distributing it to help surgical and injury patients.  It is not their job or their expertise to take plasma for this one specific use, and to then go looking for someone who is doing such research, who may be across the country such that shipping the plasma there is not economical, or even possible in appropriate time to keep the plasma usable.I laud the enthusiasm.  But whether you are aiding disaster relief, covid-19 epidemic woes, or just your friend who has a health issue, your job is to ask what is needed, and do that.  An amateur's preconceived notion of what is helpful is not reliably useful.</blockquote>

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