Despite testing positive for COVID-19 antibodies, Andy Cohen says he was denied the chance to donate plasma because he is an openly gay man.
The restriction was born out of the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s when limited testing technology existed to screen blood for HIV. In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration implemented a lifetime ban on blood donations from all men who had sex with men after 1977.from a lifetime ban to a 12-month deferral period. This meant that gay and bisexual men had to abstain from having sex with another man for at least 12 months before they'd be allowed to give blood.
The most recently revised guidelines for gay and bisexual men also extend to women who have had sex with men who have sex with other men, as well as anyone who has had recent tattoos and piercings. The FDA said the changes would be implemented immediately and are expected to remain in place after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
"I knew that gay men were not allowed to give blood. This has been something that has been going on for years," Cohen said."It was something that I took as fact in the early days of HIV in the '90s if I ever tried to give blood. The testing for HIV was far less sophisticated and accurate and fast as it is now."
"I just thought, 'Well, this is crazy.' Technology has come so far that you've got to be looking at this," he said."The doctor said, 'Oh my God, your antibodies are so robust,' which she found to be highly unusual four months after having originally testing positive for COVID," he said on"The View."
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