During an interview with The View,
out celebrity Andy Cohen said that he was “hurt” that he was
turned away from donating blood because he's gay, despite the
desperate need for blood during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Cohen, who tested positive for the
coronavirus in March at the height of the pandemic in New York,
wanted to donate his plasma to help save the lives of COVID-19
patients. Doctors hope that administering plasma from recovered
patients will speed up recovery for the sickest COVID-19 patients.
The FDA recently shortened the time gay
and bisexual men have to wait before donating blood from 12 months to
3.
“I was surprised because I had signed
up for a program with Mount Sinai because they needed the plasma of
people who had survived COVID-19, and they said you can't do it,”
Cohen said during a video appearance on the show.
Cohen said that he accepted the
restriction on gay men donating blood during the 90s because “testing
for HIV was far less sophisticated and accurate and fast as it is
now.”
“I was hurt. I just thought, 'Well,
this is crazy.' Technology has come so far that you've got to be
looking at this,” he said.
Cohen added that he was disappointed
because his doctor told him he had “robust” antibodies even four
months after testing positive for coronavirus.
“It is discriminatory,” he said.
“I'm HIV-negative. … You can find that out and you can test my
blood a couple of times before putting it into a system.”