EAs have occasionally discussed whether blood donation is effective. I always used to do it before moving to Canada, where as a Brit I’m apparently under suspicion of mad cow disease.
Via Kelsey Piper, I recently found this article from Elizabeth of EA Seattle arguing that it is. Along with the comments from Alexander Berger it sheds light on the issue, while casting doubt on some of the more extreme claims about one blood donation saving multiple lives (if that’s not a mixed metaphor).
For anyone who doesn’t want to read the whole thing + comments: It’s on average pretty effective( $50-$1667 to a GW charity) but the marginal effectiveness is pretty questionable. They throw out very little usable blood and sometimes have to use old blood, which is bad and would indicate that more blood is useful on the margins. But the best research indicates that the cost of recruiting additional donors is small relative to the price hospitals pay for blood, which suggests they don’t think they need more blood that badly. The complicating factor is whether paying for blood changes the quality of the product or the long term availability/blood banks fear of same.
Almost all of the numbers have large confidence intervals because the data just isn’t very good.
Another consideration here is that for men, donating blood about once a year has positive health effects (see the section “Blood donation” here), so if you’re a man, it might be worth it even without the altruistic benefits.
EAs have occasionally discussed whether blood donation is effective. I always used to do it before moving to Canada, where as a Brit I’m apparently under suspicion of mad cow disease.
Via Kelsey Piper, I recently found this article from Elizabeth of EA Seattle arguing that it is. Along with the comments from Alexander Berger it sheds light on the issue, while casting doubt on some of the more extreme claims about one blood donation saving multiple lives (if that’s not a mixed metaphor).
For anyone who doesn’t want to read the whole thing + comments: It’s on average pretty effective( $50-$1667 to a GW charity) but the marginal effectiveness is pretty questionable. They throw out very little usable blood and sometimes have to use old blood, which is bad and would indicate that more blood is useful on the margins. But the best research indicates that the cost of recruiting additional donors is small relative to the price hospitals pay for blood, which suggests they don’t think they need more blood that badly. The complicating factor is whether paying for blood changes the quality of the product or the long term availability/blood banks fear of same.
Almost all of the numbers have large confidence intervals because the data just isn’t very good.
Another consideration here is that for men, donating blood about once a year has positive health effects (see the section “Blood donation” here), so if you’re a man, it might be worth it even without the altruistic benefits.