What's worse is that while I was "donating" at a facility here in GA, another donor's car was missing from the parking lot when she completed her donation. Thinking it had been stolen, she come back in and was freaked out and desperate because she had no other way home. She asked the facility to check their security cameras and one of the employees giggled to another saying that this happens all the time. Not that cars get stolen from their parking lot all the time, but that people's cars that were in repo would have their cars repossessed from their lot all the time. Meaning that repossession companies knew that had a good chance of finding a vehicle they could repo from the plasma donation facility. Knowing people were down on their luck trying to make ends meet.

I relied on plasma selling for a year while job hunting and supplementing my other income to get some savings for unforseen emergencies. Definitely seedy and exploitative but it honestly was the best opportunity I had when times were tough. Being poor fucking sucked.

To be fair to the title of this video, which industry is NOT exploiting the poor these days?

My brother was one of those hemophiliacs infected by his medication in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. He died in January 1988 at the age of 18.

Fun fact: Human blood is, by value, one of the USA's top merchandise exports.

If you think this is a horrible medical scheme, do a video on the relationship between big insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, and how that affects drug costs. It’s way sleazier than this.

The (unpaid) donation system has its own problems, particularly a lack of donors. If the supply is extremely low, some surgeries will be prioritized over others. Also, if the system allows friends and family of the patient to donate specifically for that patient, then some will try to pay would be donors to donate for a specific patient. This isn't to detract from the flaws of the paid "donation" system, but to show that there's no perfect system.

Who would have thought selling and buying human blood would lead to exploitation of humans for that blood?

I worked at a plasma center for 6 years. But a lot of this is true. I never knew the costs after the product left the center tho. We always made the donors (especially new ones) sit down for a while before they got up. We always paid lots attention to their arms while doing a vein check for track marks and new tattoos. We rigourly checked their blood and if anyone came back with irregular tests the frozen plasma was discarded for that donor. Also I made lots of friends there and learned to work with lots of different people.

I live in Cleveland, oh and the number of these clinics in the lowest income areas is downright shocking!

It's absurd how much the products costs. I study in Europe and a professor of mine used her and her teams own plasma to isolate a certain protein for their experiments since the price on the market was much too expensive. They couldn't afford it and thus they borrowed the equipment from a hospital and drew their own blood. Hell Octapharma is even in the same city! You really can say that blood, sweat and tears went into their research

I worked for a plasma center. The loophole is that you are not paid for your blood. Its unethical to sell body parts. You are paid for time. The 1st time being the longest and the most paid. Then, it depends on how much you're able to donate. The plasma was tested prior to being sent. The real threat with drugs & alcohol is that because the red cells are put back. The plasma has much of the fluid in your body. So, the person ends up with all the intoxication with less fluid. It makes the "high" more intense and that's why so many lie.

My old boss went to college in a different state. It was one that allowed you to sell your blood. They would stamp your hand with some kind of UV stamp to make sure you were waiting long enough between donations. That was because lots of desperate people were always trying to sell more blood than was safe.

Donating for cash was the difference between making it and being homeless for a few months. I don't feel exploited despite knowing how much is made off of it. Its not like I have all the training, equipment, and infrastructure needed to make use of my blood as a product.

When traveling here in America, I've noticed the increase of "plasma" donation centers - always in areas that are financially challenged or significant homeless areas. Disturbing, from the increasing number i see,"lucrative" an understatement - this right along with payday loans. The risk for individuals donating and those receiving escalates this. My comment regarding "payday loans" was written before video reference to them. I left it in because of the disturbing relevance.

Really glad to see someone address this. Ive been homeless before and watching people sell their lifeforce for so cheap has always been disturbing to me

I have a cumulative year of "donating" plasma altogether. Last November, I had a bad time because it was too much time between my lunch at home and getting to donate because of how busy they were. I broke out in to freezing sweats, my head was pounding, I wanted to vomit, and couldn't keep my head up. I tried flagging down one of the staff for help, but they were blasting music so loud that I couldn't be heard. I waved my free arm as best I could, but it was a massive struggle. When my machine chimed to let them know I was done, the phlebotomist chastised me for not alerting them to my trouble, having to lean in just make sure we could hear each other over the damn music. When my partner picked me up, they gave me a donut and juice to help me recover. After eating, I groaned loudly and vomited. My partner had to keep an eye on me all night. I still had to donate two more times that month so we could pay our bills after my partner was laid off from work.

Something overlooked: where I am in the States, your first five donations are paid at a higher flat rate, and are then greatly reduced to an alternating but stable low/high rate for subsequent donations. Example: $200 per donation for the first five, then $20/$40 if you stick to the twice a week schedule.

What about making blood donations tax redeemable? People too poor won't be incentivized to donate at an unhealthy level without the immediate cash reward.

Bulgarian here. I usually go and donate blood to the clinics whenever I have an opportunity to do so. As far as I know they allow you to donate blood every 4-ish months. I'd just donate it to a hospital or if someone close needs a donation and they would give you a pack of sweets and juice afterwards. I'd give the pack to the homeless people around the railway station since they could use some extra food. One time, I was appalled since you'd see gypsies around the clinic, and they were asking for money from an old lady who needed blood for a relative. I always donated without expecting anything in return and was just happy to help out, plus you get two days off work.

Funnily enough, I am listening to this on the way to the Plasma Center. I find it to be a great way to slowly but surely decrease my student loan debt while repayment is still paused.

Been known for years that the practices in the US medical market are beyond the comprehension of the maiority of the world, but it is the backbone of the blood and plasma industry ... and desperate people need those products. Such a sad situation

It's mad. In the UK, donation is voluntary. You get free snacks and hot drinks post-donation where you get observed for a few minutes to make sure you're feeling okay. But otherwise it's done out of basic human decency. I donate whole blood every 12 weeks. I usually take the day off and make it a 'me' day. I buy a nice lunch, give blood, then go to watch a movie, or go home and play some video games.

There was a plasma clinic near the opioid treatment clinic in my hometown. The opioid treatment clinic also got shut down roughly 5 years after they had opened because they weren't really treating people and getting them hooked on a different type of opioid that they "monitored."

In Austria here most of the plasma donor clinics are (near) all in Vienna (capital city). There are 2-3 different chains where one even has 4 clinics in Vienna 😅 The biggest donor group here are college students and they get about 30-40€ per donation. A friend of mine had to stop donating after a while because the skin where the needle went, scarred so much (they used a thick needle) that he was not sure if the received money was worth it. I once tried to donate (broke student too), but was declined because my veins are too thin for them. Since then, I am barred there (which kinda feels weird) I am not sure how I feel about this industry. For one, I am studying exactly this field (biotechnology) and know why we still need donor blood plasma and can't artificially produce it yet. On the other hand, the way the industry markets itself to us and present itself is so iffy.

I got notified that as a AB+ blood type i am a universal plasma donor. Then suddenly i started getting flyers for donation centers near me. I felt like i was being targeted by vampires. It is rather creepy to get flyers saying, "Hey you have gold in those veins... GIVE IT TO US." Rather morbid dont ya think? Edit: The actual flyer says, "You could save lives and get paid for it. (50 per session)"

Seeing this video makes me glad I'm not in the US. I'm a regular blood donor in Australia. Here one cannot legally sell organs or blood. During each blood donation samples are also drawn for tests. So, the blood donations are generally considered to be higher quality than those in other countries. Unfortunately, this causes fewer people to donate leading to a shortage in blood products. No matter how great the need, some people would only do something for someone else if they get paid in the process.

I've been "donating" plasma for the past 6 years. The financial compensation helps many in my area make ends meet, and also helps me be able to save through the year to get gifts for my family for birthdays and xmas. The fact that I know I'm part of a human factory is different, but life in the US dictates needing to make as much $$ as possible.

One thing that I have noticed in the US is the emerging prevalence of "rewards" for donating whole blood. It used to be that, during blood drives, they might give you a t-shirt or a lapel pin, but of late, I've noted blood banks that are offering gift cards for donating (including reputable outfits like the Red Cross). Honestly, I don't know how I feel about it, but I know there is a constant need for whole blood, so I keep donating and hoping that I'm doing the right thing.

When I donated plasma for a few months it was truly an eye-opening experience. The way the payments were given was very manipulative.

I considered selling plasma after I graduated college in 2008 because of finances. The reasons I ultimately decided not to are 1) the nearest plasma center was far away from my small town and the amount they paid was not enough to make up for the gas money and 2) I heard from other people who donated blood regularly that donors are treated like criminals, so I should only do it if I was truly destitute. I couldn't find a job that could support me, but I was privileged to be able to rely on family during that time. Thank you for putting a spotlight on this industry, Simon.

Donors get paid in America? Ours don't. In NZ it's a straight donation, no payment beyond a cup of tea and a biscuit (cookie).

I donate plasma fairly regularly and I have never had any sort of adverse reaction other than thirst and hunger after donating. A bottle of Gatorade or, believe it or not, a beer and some potato chips cures that right away. It cannot be overstated that these medicines can ONLY be made from human plasma.

When I was a poor college student and then a poor college graduate who was making $14 an hour in 2013 in an extremely expensive city, plasma donations or the only thing keeping me afloat and financially. I went twice a week for almost 3 years. I still bear the scars on my arms and have had more than one person ask me if I used to be an IV drug addict

As a severe hemophilia-A patient, it is hard to hear the epidemic that destroyed the community. Plasma is important for the factor injection, since recombinant factors are costly.

I've donated on and off for about 10 years now. Only one issue so far. They missed my vein and blood was returning to the muscle. That felt weird. Started to baloon... I donated with my GF. We turned it into date night. Donate then go out for dinner. Alcohol was WAY cheaper. More bang for your buck

In Mississippi we get a $25 visa gift card for donating plasma & the clinics still have a hard time getting people to donate. Also Mississippi only allows you to donate plasma once every two weeks.

No, it doesn't exploit the poor. What exploits the poor is the conditions they are in which makes this a good option. All it does is make you aware of how much it sucks to be poor. Saying plasma payments exploit the poor is like saying someone lost at sea is being exploited by their life vest because it's not a boat. Don't blame the life vest blame the guy who pushed them off the boat.

I’ve personally sold my plasma on a Canadian university campus, it is definitely legal in Canada as well

I'm on the IVIG treatment Simon described, specifically Privigen, due to Common Variable Immunodeficiency. One infusion every three weeks, and it is actually worth more than it's weight in gold. It's easily $8k per treatment, just for the Privigen alone. I have to have private insurance, and then cover my deductible with state insurance, just so that I don't have to start the year financially boned. The pharmaceutical industry in the US is wildly criminal

I'm donating blood for 9 years know. I needed the money badley for my time at university and went two times a week. But I can't do that that often anymore. Now I go 1-2 times a month. The mother of a friend depends on medicine from plasma, so I won't stop anytime soon...

Hey, I've done this. No lying on the questionnaire or anything but another hundred bucks a month is nice

That vampire piano music in the background

I donated plasma for a few years to pay rent. I have health issues and really shouldn't have, but gotta make some $. I went in before work and was woozy all the rest of the day. Every time, though, my protein levels kept dropping a little at a time until they were too low, and they stopped letting me come in. I don't need the cash these days, and with my blood type, my whole blood is more useful to people, so I'd prefer doing that if my health was better.

I survived on these donations for years while I was struggling. They ultimately messed up my veins, and now, if I need blood drawn, they have to go through the top of my hands. That being said, though, it really helped me when I needed it. Used all of the plasma money for food since the rest of my income was entirely going to bills.

There was a rave club called the plasma lounge in our town, an actual old plasma center. Clientele in some ways remained the same before and after the changeover....

im in college and my friends and i genuinely were setting up carpools to go sell plasma just to try and get some more money. my friends ended up being told they'd get a certain amount and being completely lowballed when the money came in, so it ended up being a LOT of effort for not enough money. that situation easily leaves people forced to sell again later in the week if they want to make enough money

I'm sitting in a plasma clinic as I watch this video while my wife is donating. I'm too old to donate and we really appreciate the extra money they pay her. We live on my social security and we just can't make it without the extra money.

In the States we justify it with, "You're compensated for your time, not the donation itself."

Use to work as outsourced IT for a company that made hemophilia meds... I remember one of their freezer's temperature sensors stopped reporting, and nobody noticed, as a result the temperature rose and something like two million usd wort of meds went bad. Im pretty sure theve gone out of business, everyone there was ridiculously incompetent.

I would love to see an Into the Shadows episode on the Insulin problems in the US. I know things are getting slightly better, but 10 years ago, I was paying $750 a vial for a medication I need on a daily basis, a medication that if I went just a day or two without, could cost me my life. Pharmaceutical companies in the US (and elsewhere I'm sure) employ some of the most greedy, deplorable humans I've ever seen. Making such HUGE profits off of medications that they KNOW people will pay for, because if they don't, they die.

Thank you to everyone who does donate. My children and husband wouldn't be here without you.

Shame we dont have journalists here in the US who investigate maters like this and inform the public. But money buys silence.

In the late 90’s, I was stationed at Ft Lewis in Washington. A lot of the soldiers sold their plasma so they could go out drinking.

Which is why the countries that do not pay will not accept blood products from those who do pay. This has led to smuggling of the cheaper products to those other countries. Greatly reduced chances of transmission is not a zero risk.

As bad as 'exploiting the poor' is, I don't think it's even 1% as bad as letting people die because of lack of easily obtainable supplies. I think kidney and other 'organ sales' should be allowed for the same reason. Iran does it and they have a waitlist for people to give their kidney, rather than a waitlist to get a kidney(that people die on) like every other country.

I did this for a little while before I was able to get a job after moving across the country. The first month they pay pretty well. It was $100 for the first donation and $120 for the second every week. But after that first month it drops to $40 for the first donation and $75 for the second. And they have to be completed in the same week to get that money. Toward the end of the first month I was passing out after every donation. It wasn’t worth putting my body through that for 40 bucks. Every car in the parking lot was falling apart and the donors all looked so tired. I feel really bad for the people who don’t have any other choice but to go there twice a week and get the life sucked out of them.

On city buses in my city, there are printed ads promoting plasma donation as a way to earn extra cash to pay for things like sports equipment.

It's depressing irony that I was just looking into selling my plasma since we can't quite make rent since it raised in January and we had to pay the past two months on a credit card.

Welcome to America

I'm donating because I can, and I'm thankful that i can.

As someone who donates plasma twice a week, I really appreciate this look into what I've known for a while is a pretty shitty deal. I don't have the luxury of stopping, but you know there's something wrong when the bus fair to get there is enough to make it not worth the trip.

I donated blood once. As I was leaving the hospital a taxi driver pointed to the ground. I looked and saw a trail of blood leading to the doctor's office. I started walking back and felt faint. When I got back to the doctor's office I promptly puked into a sink. I didn't faint but was extremely weak. I recovered after a while. That was the first and last time I donated blood.

Nothing worse than being told you have bad antibodies when your poor. Unable to donate

I’m one of the people who have a severe reaction. I actually have seizures from the magnesium citrate. It has happened every single time I’ve donated… and within about 5-10 minutes of the filter machine starting up.

I donated every week when I was a broke college student. It didn't bother me at all. I support the paid system. Blood is your personal property. If you want to sell it, that's your own choice.

If you think the cost of plasma related medications are high now, just make payment illegal and watch the supply plummet. Incidentally, I have donated 2xweek for over 4 years without a problem. I am not broke, but I have to admit the money adds nicely to my budget. What I do to/with my body is my concern and the righteous social warriors can keep their damn nose out of a private individual's life.

I know a lot of US soldiers, mostly married lower enlisted, that started selling their plasma in 2020 after their spouses got laid off to make ends meet.

So, it seems to me that the real problem here is that we as a society allow people to become so poor that they resort to selling parts of their body as a last resort. But this really isn't very different from prostitution due to a lack of financial stability. And that's been going on for centuries. No one should ever be forced into selling their body to make ends meet - in any way. And prostitution carries much higher risks than blood donation in a sanitary professional environment. But I think incentivizing blood donation by paying people is actually a good idea. That drastically increases the amount of blood being donated. We just need to solve the whole "massive poverty and wealth dispairity" - issue.

I noticed at least where I live that the more expensive stuff gets the more commercials about donating blood pop up

I love how the usual solution to this that people give is to make it illegal to compensate plasma donor. Hey, it isn’t exploitative if we give them NOTHING, right?

personally I think if someone knows the risks and is of sufficient mental capacity (i.e. not pressured into it), they should be allowed to """""donate""""" whatever they want

In Canada, they can't pay you for your plasma, but they can compensate you for your time. Apparently it takes about 90 minutes, so that's how they justify paying for it. Honestly I've been considering it, because I could use the extra income.

This is what I’m talking about. What a great video you’re really going to the news, even the most recent ones.

I've donated platelets a couple times. The facility I went to does not pay. It's a straight up donation.

I did an internship for a large company where I was only being paid 9$ per hour and only about 28-30 hours per week while making rent payment of 200$ per week. Most of my peers were selling plasma to buy food and I couldn’t bc I was severely underweight. It sucks here TvT

Watching this after donating here in the US lol just made $90 and now I can eat this weekend:)

back in the early 2000,s I was low on money and started donating plasma. I donated twice a week at $35 per. donation for 258 times. do the math.

In Finland you don't get money from blood donation.

I donate almost half a litre (I think specifically 487 ml, yes, the number is consistently very specific) of plasma every fortnight (once every two weeks) here in Australia. Two weeks is the minimum required time you have to wait to donate again, because more often than that is considered too dangerous. I hope there’s more context, like less plasma is taken if you’re donating twice a week, but that stat terrifies me. People don’t get paid, at least to my knowledge, but I get free food and drink afterwards. Also fun fact I learned after donating blood for the first time: AB+ blood, while being a universal recipient for whole blood, isn’t a universal recipient for blood plasma and is instead a universal donor, and is thus the most sought after blood plasma, at least here in Australia. Basically AB+ plasma has the same rules as O- blood. That’s the main reason I donate, being AB+. Just felt like sharing some fun facts about plasma donation, being a long term donor (70 donations.) Edit: Hey, Australia mention! Yeah, plasma is very sought after here. There’s a chart at the centre I donate at that’s divided into two groups: Blood & Plasma, to demonstrate what product they want from what blood type, and every blood type except for O-, naturally, is in plasma.

The clinic i went to was very professional and cautious about how much people were donating. The only time people would have issues was when they would sneak in to make more money

They test every bottle of plasma, not just occasionally. Every single time they have to screen a small sample of the plasma to make sure nothing gets through!

I’ve been donating plasma for nearly 10 years at this point and about 4 years ago they had bumped up their payments to about $140 a week. $60 on the first donation and $80 on the second.. they have been reducing their payouts and some places are even starting to take more plasma on top. 800ml to 1000 and $140-$150 a Week to $120… they might as well harvest us for meat because they don’t see us as anything else… but what am I gonna do? NOT Eat every other week?

Eh, I agree no one should feel forced to sell their plasma but that speaks more to social safety nets, and a lot of those feels like it’s the donors who manipulate the system by lying and cheating through checks, rather than the blood businesses themselves. I’m actually surprised they do a physical at the first visit and then again river few months, that was more than I expected. I don’t think I can blame the blood company when a junkie sneaks in their friends urine to pass a test anymore than I blame an employer for hiring someone with a heroin problem after the employee cheated their own drug test.

I had a former coworker who freaked out when he missed the time to donate. It was like his whole life ended cause he missed his window and would throw off his schedule of "donation"

Italian whole blood donor here. I only ever got a paid day off and a small meal, and I'm glad for it.

As someone who requires infusions of a plasma product twice a month, I *hate* that it comes from such an exploitative industry.

This is so weird to think about my dad has started getting his plasma donated just to feed us and pay bills this is so sad

Love your content

About 15 yrs ago I looked into this. My father had leukemia and was receiving transfusions and I thought I would give back and donate. Once I got in and looked the place over I knew I had to do more research first. Never went back after that.

It was the case and I am guessing still is that people who have cancers like Kaporski Sarcoma and T Cell Lymphomas like Mycosis Fungoides and PCTL NOS couldn't donate blood or body parts ever but I don't know what checks if any occurs.Even a blood test probably won't work as the T Cell Lymphomas generally don't show up in blood test which is strange considering that they are blood cancers!

My mom had Lymphoma that later developed into Leukaemia. At than time COVID had hit S.A. and the strain on the medical aid and government was so high that she couldn't get the correct Chemotherapy, thus the interim solution was transfusions. Both my older sister and I had the same blood-type as mom and hubby is O+ thus could also donate for her. The problem was that all 3 of us are on different chronic medicines for various reasons and because we wouldn't normally have been able too donate, and because of the already fragile state she was in there just wasn't a safe way we could donate especially for her, which you can do on request. In the end the 6 different times she received not only full blood but also plasma was extremely expensive but enabled her to live a bit more comfortably until she passed away almost 8 months after her final diagnosis.

I have a friend who has been "donating" his plasma for over 20 years now. All because he needs the extra cash. I could never do that. The idea of them putting the blood back in me freaks me out!

Imma be honest most people in my family and me included have made plasma donations to help with bills and for money to get by. It's common and easy make sure you eat before and drink lots of water and you will be okay

The flame transition is cool, but when it’s coupled with the fade-in from black it detracts from whatever text follows and doesn’t leave a lot of time to read it - good editing otherwise tho!

This is why for profit Healthcare should not be allowed.

I donate twice a week here in Canada. The compensation is nice, and I do my best to keep myself healthy to keep donating. With my blood type, AB Negative. I have seen via Google that it is highly sought after. And 1 of my donations can saved up to 3 lives. I'm going to keep donating though. The supply is way to low for comfort. My EMS friend has said time and again that he's grateful that I do go, even at the risk of my health.

I'm guessing Australia's plasma shortage in medicines isn't as simple as a lack of plasma, probaby relates to licences on making the meds or something. I say this because one of the world's biggest plasma clinic providers in the US is "CSL" which stands for "Commonwealth (of Australia) Serum Laboratories" ie Australian government controlled research & drug & related product manufacturers, such as vacines & antivenoms. They harvest massive amounts of plasma from the US for use in their facilities in Australia. They're not the only international player in the US plasma collection network either

I did this for a bit. It helped with the bills. No one made me do it and I stopped after a while. How about use those funds to empower yourself so you don’t have to rely on those services? Quit being a victim and take accountability.

Working at a plasma center is an absolute nightmare, from many of the donors, to the management and coworkers.