Activists Call for Ending Ban on Blood Donations by Gay Men
KAYE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye, bottom of the hour now. Here are some of the stories that we're working on this morning. Much of southern Russia is being inundated by deadly flash flooding. At least 78 people have already died and others are unaccounted for. Two months of rain has fallen in just two hours, triggering mudslides. This is the Crasnodar region, a popular tourist destination on the black sea. Russia will host the 2014 winter Olympics right there. The intense heat, which has broken thousands of temperature records across the Midwest, will hit much of the east and mid-Atlantic states today. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington could see triple digits, tying or breaking records. Millions of Americans, nearly half the country, will swelter through another scorching day. At Wimbledon, the women's final is under way. American Serena Williams facing Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland. Williams took the first set 6-1 and is up three games to two in the second. Williams is going for her fifth Wimbledon singles title. Do you give blood? Sure, it's not easy for everyone with those needles and all, but it's a pretty important thing to do. About 95 percent of the population will need donated blood at one time or another. But listen to this -- the American Red Cross says power outages created by storms in the east and Midwest cut blood donations which were already low this summer. In fact, donations were down more than 10 percent across the country last month. You might not know it, but there's actually a group not allowed to donate blood, despite the shortfall. That group is gay men. If a man has had sex with another man even once since 1977 he cannot be a donor. The rule's been in place since the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic decimated their community. Joining me now to talk about this is Arthur Caplan, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Congressman Mike Quigley, who is pushing to have this ban re-examined. Good morning to both of you.</s>ARTHUR CAPLAN, BIOETHICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Good morning.</s>KAYE: Art, let me start with you on this.</s>REP. MIKE QUIGLEY, (D) ILLINOIS: Good morning.</s>KAYE: Take us through what happens to our blood after it's donated. I mean, is all blood tested for HIV and AIDS?</s>CAPLAN: Well, the first thing that happens is you get asked a series of questions to try and rule out people deemed at high risk, and gay men are part of that. Then, all the blood that's donated is tested for a variety of diseases like hepatitis, HIV, even rare diseases like Chagas disease. Most importantly, the blood is almost always pooled together. You don't really keep it in one-pint units that are the donations. You mix it up. And so, the fear is you've got to be careful about safety because you're combing blood, and so, you could expose a lot of people if only one donation is infected.</s>KAYE: And congressman, I understand you're working with Senator John Kerry and more than 60 other politicians to get this ban re-examined. What is the goal? Is it a less restrictive ban or no limits at all?</s>QUIGLEY: No, I think it's a less restrictive ban. Remember, the technology's changed so dramatically and blood screenings in the last 27 years, and we know so much more about risky behavior. Remember that what we're proposing is a nuanced change to this ban so that gay men are allowed to give donations. This is also supported by the American Medical Association, and by the way, the blood banks. The blood banks themselves have said this lifetime ban is medically unwarranted.</s>KAYE: Art, did this ban at one point make sense, at one time?</s>CAPLAN: It did at one time. Way back at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, we really had a terrible impact on people with hemophilia who rely on blood products every day. Their population got decimated by AIDS, just a kind of holocaust among that group. We didn't have good, reliable tests at that time. In fact, we didn't even know what we were looking for at the start of the AIDS epidemic. But it doesn't make much sense today, because, as the congressman said, we have very, very good testing now. Saying that you can't donate if you've had male-to-male sex since 1977 doesn't make a lot of sense today. It did then, doesn't now.</s>KAYE: So, do you agree with the red cross, that a year off between sex with another man, Art, should be sufficient?</s>CAPLAN: Absolutely. You know, a number of other countries are already going this route. Italy, Spain, Britain, Australia, Japan, they haven't encountered any problems. I think this is important for viewers to understand, Randi, the biggest threat they face today is not safety in the blood supply but having blood there when you need it. We don't have enough blood. People aren't donating blood enough. Some in this group want to donate. You're more likely to get into trouble because there's no blood to give you than you are because of any safety issue given the testing that's available today.</s>KAYE: And in terms of the numbers, congressman, allowing gay men to donate would really help solve the donation problem. If you look at the numbers, more than 53,000 additional men would likely make more than 89,000 blood donations?</s>QUIGLEY: Absolutely. I mean, this is a matter of life and death, and we're turning away over 50,000 healthy men who want to donate blood. It makes absolutely no sense. It is very rare that we can solve a discrimination problem at the same time we're solving a public health problem.</s>KAYE: But whether the ban is a month, congressman, sticking with you here, whether the ban is a month or a year or a lifetime I mean, isn't it still discrimination of some sort?</s>QUIGLEY: Well, I think the discrimination isn't against -- currently, discrimination is against gay men. I think the nuance here is that people who engage in risky behavior, whether they are gay or straight, their blood should not be allowed into the supply. But you know, we all know many, many gay men who are in long-term, monogamous relationships, who practice safe sex. Gay or straight, people who are in those relationships, people who practice safe sex, people who are healthy should be allowed to donate.</s>KAYE: And correct me if I'm wrong, but heterosexual people donating blood are not asked these questions about their risky behavior.</s>QUIGLEY: Well, not in the same manner, and I think that's unfortunate. I mean, a straight person who has unsafe sex with multiple partners can give blood, and that creates a greater risk than a gay person in a monogamous relationship.</s>KAYE: I want to share with you. We did reach out to the U.S. department of health and human services and were told that in march, they requested information to obtain information about blood donations from gay men, but, quote, "No decision has been made yet to proceed with the pilot." Art, what do you think, is it enough that they just might study this?</s>CAPLAN: Well, you know, I was chair of the advisory committee on blood safety and availability for the country in 1999 to 2001. We were trying to change the policy then and we thought we had enough evidence to make a recommendation of change. So, we're already more than 10 years out. I'm not sure you need to study this anymore. What you need to do is open your eyes to the reliability of testing, to the shortage of blood that's out there that puts all of us at risk, to realize that if you want to be on the very, very, very safe side, put in a one-year ban instead of this 1977 one-time ban. I think that will serve the public health best, and I think the time to change, as other countries are doing, is now.</s>KAYE: Congressman, I'll give you the final word.</s>QUIGLEY: And we have to remember that Health and Human Services, spurred by our letter, has acknowledged that its process now is "suboptimal," something only a government bureaucracy could say. In the meantime, we need a blood transfusion every two seconds in the United States. We need to solve this problem.</s>KAYE: Yes, "suboptimal" doesn't cut it when the need is that great. Congressman, thank you very much. Art Kaplan, nice to see you as well.</s>CAPLAN: Thank you.</s>QUIGLEY: Thank you.</s>KAYE: And if you want to read more about this story, you can visit our home page at CNN.com. In 2008, Barack Obama rocked the vote with young people, but fast- forward to 2012 and it is a whole different story. A good percentage of the youngest voters say they are at least considering voting for Republican Mitt Romney. 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