But then how would we punish the undeserving?

Yes, but federal tax records can be used to corroborate an individual’s previous employment regardless of whether the business is still active

Fuck cars

Most donor blood is O+

O- is great because it is (almost always*) usable by anyone of any blood type, but only like 7% of people have it, so the overall supply is not very high and it’s typically reserved for emergencies and O- patients.

O+ can be given to most people because most people have O+ blood. Something like 30-40% of people have O+ and can thus receive O+ donations. All the Rh+ blood types can receive O+ blood too, which accounts for the vast majority of people. A+ is something like 25-30% of the population and B+ is like 10%. Altogether, O+, A+, B+, and AB+ make up probably about 75-85% of the population, and all of those people can receive O+ blood donations, thus the supply of O+ blood is the most-needed most of the time.

Obviously they also want as much O- as possible too. Hell, they want all of them all the time except AB type blood from females.

*Blood typing is actually a lot more complicated than A/B antigen and Rh factor, so some people with certain antigens need very specific donor blood or autologous blood that they donate themselves prior to a procedure or whatnot.

+/-

Miami/Tampa/Orlando

Seattle

Atlanta

DC

Portland

Minneapolis/St. Paul

Philly

New Orleans

Kansas City

It’s call aquafaba and it can be whipped into a froth

Bummer

Finally, some good news

AB type females can develop dangerous antibodies during pregnancy, and so even if you’ve never been pregnant (or think you’ve never been pregnant) there is still statistically an additional risk because there’s no good way to know for certain whether you’ve has ever been pregnant. The tests and screening for blood antibodies are expensive. Because of the heightened risk, taking AB positive female blood can be more expensive and complicated than it’s worth, so many blood banks just don’t actively encourage AB females to donate as often. There is still use for any kind of blood, even if it is used for research or if they use the RBC and waste the plasma. They certainly would never turn you away, but they also won’t regularly pester you the way they will an O- or O+ donor

AB+ male donor plasma is compatible with all blood types (universal plasma donor) and so they really want that. They call it liquid gold

I don’t know enough about blood banking specifically but it’s possible that there are some blood banks who have better capacity to screen any female AB plasma for HLA antibodies and so they don’t care as much. Idk. I just know as an AB+ female, my local blood bank was like “Don’t donate unless we tell you we need it”

Who tf poured that beer

I agree with all of this. I worked for 10 years as a technical writer (I wanted to be a novelist but bad luck and poor self-control and executive dysfunction prevented me from ever really publishing anything noteworthy). For one thing, actually working as a writer kinda killed the drive for me. I still write for myself, but I have no real aim to get published—in large part because I know very few would ever read anything I wrote, simply because very few people still read. I’m currently shifting careers to something that AI won’t be able to swipe from me, and I’ve honestly been enjoying it a lot more than I ever enjoyed writing, though I loved studying English in school. Working as a writer is just not the same thing as going to school for writing. Working as a writer is just being told to write assignments you don’t really have any interest in day in and day out.

Oh it’s not exclusionary. They’ll totally still take your blood. It’s just in the lowest demand in general, and blood banks often tell AB females (both + and -) that they will reach out when they want/need blood donation, rather than telling those donors to come for donations as often as possible like they do for other donors. If you’re willing to donate, by all means keep donating. The blood banks can figure out what to do with it and all blood has its uses!