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Episode 221: Plasma Vampires & the Blood Business feat Kathleen McLaughlin (Patreon)

Published:
2023-03-01 22:45:11
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Forget adrenochrome. There's a very real network of private companies extracting blood plasma from financially precarious Americans and selling it (and its derivatives) for piles of money on the global market. They target parts of the country in economic decline and incentivize plasma sellers to become repeat visitors to their centers, despite the physical downsides of the process. Our guest this week is Kathleen McLaughlin, author of Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry.

Thanks for supporting us on patreon!

Kathleen McLaughlin: https://twitter.com/kemc / https://kemc.substack.com

Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blood-Money/Kathleen-McLaughlin/9781982171964

QAA's Website: qanonanonymous.com

Music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz.

Comments

Anonymous

I love this episode. I work in an infusion pharmacy for a large health system and many of our patients are on these medications. I’ve always wondered about the plasma industry and the connection to the medication. Even better that she has a patient’s perspective. Can’t wait to read the book.

Anonymous

Something to look into is the proliferation of dialysis centers? I wonder if they have similar footprints?

Anonymous

This episode hit close to home for me because I work in post collection blood production. Definitely gonna check out that book! My workplace only utilizes volunteer donors (free hats and snacks though!) but the city where my facility is located has a lot of paid centers. I’m not surprised about the lack of regulation for the paying centers. :/ Also anticoagulant reactions are a known issue. Bit of an info dump on plasma production. If you’re giving whole blood 99.9% of the time it is going to be separated into red blood cell and plasma. Transfusable plasma has reversed typing to red cells (AB is the universal plasma donor and we use it to make units for infants) but the processes used for manufacturing (which my lab doesn’t do) negates the need for typing. I can’t speak to the rest of the industry but at my workplace afab plasma is usually slated for manufacture because of the risk of transfusion related acute lung injury if it tests positive for specific antibodies and is given to an amab recipient. Afab plasma can be used for platelet harvesting though. Aphaeresis units are always scheduled for transfusion at our location but they have their own limitations.

Shivvy

Fascinating ep! so glad these drugs exist so we have Kathleen doing good work. This made me intrigued about giving plasma though I’m fatigued enough of the time to be scared to..

Sean Marshall

There is literally a plasma center on the same block as the homeless shelter in my city

Ronnie Maynard

Twice a week donor, here. Ask me anything:

Tom

Plasma center in my city is right next to the University….hmmmm

Dixon Rivera

Wow, like others commenting, this really hits home. The economic reasons the guest spoke about, when informing us of why people donate are exactly the same reasons I donate. I’m just trying to make ends meet. All in all, a superb episode!!

KateSherrod

You guys are turning into a damned book club. I'm reading Will Sommer's book right now, then I've gotta get this one! I've never given plasma but I've donated platelets for a lot of premies and cancer patients because I'm CMV- and I never thought about how I give it freely but I'm the only one who doesn't either get paid or have to pay for it in the supply chain from me to the patient.

Kate

Small correction to the intro: oftentimes you do need to make sure donors and recipients have compatible blood types, it’s just a different setup. AB+ is the universal plasma donor, as opposed to O- being the universal red blood cell donor.

Brett Harris

Did nobody notice that this moron had no point? They're mildly miffed that PharmCom can charge so much, but doesn't think people should be paid for donating, but it's a scandal and proof of... something(?) that people aren't given cookies? What is this mouth-breather's point about anything? It's all triteness and contradiction. It's like if Parade magazine tried to do a scathing expose about the plasma industry, but would have included a cookie recipe with a cheeky pun name. No, they think it's awful to pay people for plasma (without a single argument for why), but is only mildly miffed at how expensive the end drug is, and it's also a scandal that some places don't give you cookies Seriously? No, I mean, really? Wow. Woodward and Bernstein have been put in their place. The closest this idiot come to making a point is acknowledging their use of this medication causes suffering to a lot of people (although they haven't come remotely close to proving, in any way, and actually contradict it several times), then they're stating, explicitly, that their life is worth more than those of the people who suffer. That's pretty gross. It's like when Mary Beth Sweetland was discovered to be an insulin dependent diabetic. She's an executive at PETA, paid for terrorists who firebomb medical research labs, says nobody should take drugs with animal products, and insulin contains animal products. She said it didn't make her a hypocrite because she needs her life to fight for the lives of animals — without proving whether she was effective or necessary. You know what might lead to a shakeup of the industry? If someone who took one of these meds publicly stopped taking them until X/Y/Z changes were made. Since they couldn't be bothered to understand how to formulate, and prove, a point I doubt they'd put actual effort in. Lastly, that bit about the person who wanted to get a dress for a wedding... "I'm sorry she felt she had to do that..." Fucking come on? So there's a problem, and it's this person who found a way to afford a luxury item they didn't need, but made them feel really good. Fuck them, right? What is this stupid moron's point about anything? Fuck off with this. Seriously, nobody effing noticed that she doesn't have a point? This was worse than pointless. Thank you.

Isaac Suárez
>>105023996

I thought the episode was pretty enlightening, and the journalist clearly knew what she was talking about. I have no idea where this vitriol is coming from, but it feels more than a bit misdirected. Are you a vampire?

thatheathen

I've sold my plasma for a year back in 2018 until BioLife banned me cuz I couldn't recite my address from memory perfectly. Now I'm back to selling my plasma in 2023, and I get $120 a week. It's not bad I suppose. Yes I got the scars. I'm not really feeling much side effects other than some fatigue. I don't feel ashamed for donating plasma for money; that's how it should be, but it definitely should be $200+ a donation. It's helpful at keeping me alive, cuz I'm struggling to find work. To me the reason people that feel ashamed from donating plasma is the stigma of poverty... being a poor person is gross to many citizens. Because the poor's are donating, you must be just like them. The desperate degenerates, the odd weirdos show up, and I feel some of the more bourgeois people needing some extra money but don't go often, feel like they're a dirty poor for donating plasma. Anyway. Sorry for rambling.