FDA eases ban on gay blood donations amid coronavirus crisis

Faced with tremendous pressure during the coronavirus crisis to lift its policy barring gay men from donating blood, the Food & Drug Administration announced on Thursday it has eased the restrictions.

While the previous policy, established in 2015, barred men who have had sex with men in the 12 months from making a donation, the new policy would shorten the deferral period, requiring abstinence for only three months.

The FDA indicated it would make a change in a notice to stakeholders on Thursday, saying the decision was based on “evaluation of the totality of the scientific evidence available.”

“To help address this critical need and increase the number of donations, the FDA is announcing today that based on recently completed studies and epidemiologic data, we have concluded that the current policies regarding the eligibility of certain donors can be modified without compromising the safety of the blood supply,” the notice says.

In addition changing the recommended deferral period for men who have had sex with men from 12 months to 3 months, the FDA informs stakeholders of other changes.

Among them are easing ban on donations for women who have had sex with men who, in turn, previously have had sex with a man. For these women, the deferral period has similarly been changed from 12 months to 3 months.

Further, the new policy eases the 12 month deferral for individuals with recent tattoos and piercings to three months, and eases from an indefinite ban to a three month ban donations from people who have a past history of sex in exchange for money, or injection drug use.

Other changes are implemented easing policy related to blood donors who have travelled to malaria-endemic areas, such as countries in Africa, or to European countries where the donors faces potential risk of transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

The FDA issued the notice to stakeholders at the same time it published on its website a 17-page official memo outlining the changes, declaring they were made to address the shortage in the blood supply amid the COVID-19 crisis and therefore would not wait for a public comment period.

“As a result of this public health emergency, there is a significant shortage in the supply of blood in the United States, which early implementation of the recommendations in this guidance may help to address (even though the recommendations in this guidance are broadly applicable beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency),” the memo says.

The three month deferral period is consistent with recommendations from the American Red Cross, which before the coronavirus had called on the FDA to shorten the deferral period.

The FDA implemented the changes after a weeks-long campaign from the LGBTQ media watchdog GLAAD.

As U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams made an urgent plea for donations to address the blood shortage during the coronavirus, GLAAD called for an end to the ban to allow LGBTQ people to donate blood. A petition launched by GLAAD as of Thursday had more than 20,000 signatures.

Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement the FDA changes are good progress and worth celebrating, but more needs to change.

“This is a victory for all of us who raised our collective voices against the discriminatory ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood,” Ellis said. “The FDA’s decision to lower the deferral period on men who have sex with men from 12 months to 3 months is a step towards being more in line with science, but remains imperfect. We will keep fighting until the deferral period is lifted and gay and bi men, and all LGBTQ people, are treated equal to others.”

In 1983, the FDA implemented a lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men amid fears in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. During the Obama administration in 2015, that policy was eased to a ban on donations from men who’ve had sex with men in the past year — but restrictions nonetheless remained in place.

In recent weeks, numerous members of Congress had called on FDA to change the policy in several letters to the agency. Among them were Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who led 17 senators in calling for an end to the policy, as well as Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

But victory has a thousand fathers. Just about an hour before the change was announced, a White House official said the Blade via email, “The White House has been working with FDA to study the issue.” The White House has previously not responded to requests to comment on the issue.

In the morning just before the FDA announced the change, the Human Rights Campaign publicized an April 2 letter from HRC President Alphonso David to the FDA calling for new policy “based on science” for gay blood donations. (The letter stops short of outright calling for an end to the ban.)

“While deferral is necessary for some donors, the current 12 month deferral period is not in line with evidence-based science,” the letter says. “To ensure the blood supply is the safest it can possibly be, risk should be evaluated based on the individual risk behaviors of every donor, rather than on community-wide prevalence.”

The FDA notice to stakeholders indicated Dr. Peter Marks, center for Biologics Evaluation & Research, would hold a conference call at 1:05 pm to answer questions on the new policy.

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