The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 5.21 The Problem With Belle Delphine Beating Paypal, Blood Deserts, Burn Pits, Severe Turbulence, & More

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Go to http://claritin.com right now for a discount so you can Live Claritin Clear. Get an exclusive NordVPN deal here https://nordvpn.com/phil It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!   ==== ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩- – 00:00 - One Dead, Multiple Injured After Singapore Airlines Boeing Flight Plummets  02:11 - PayPal Gave Belle Delphine Her Bathwater Money 5 Years Later 03:44 - ScarJo Says OpenAI Used Voice Similar to Hers After She Rejected Project  05:21 - Elon Musk’s Call to Streamers Highlights Twitter’s Spam Problem 07:43 - Sponsored by Claratin 08:42 - Biden to Announce VA Has Approved One Million Claims Under New Burn Pits Law 10:51 - Trump, Maryland, and IVF in Political Headlines 15:35 - Israeli Officials Seize AP Equipment 18:18 - Sponsored by Nord 19:20 - Hundreds of Millions Live in “Blood Deserts,” Lacking Access to Transfusions Maryland midwives deep dive: https://youtu.be/gGmKnn9i4Rg?si=vkP7laxeB45lHZXT&t=603 ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on Blood Deserts: Lili Stenn ———————————— #DeFranco #BelleDelphine #Ludwig ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show, your daily dive into the news, and we got a lot of it to talk about today. In breaking news that I will not be sharing with my son who just got over his fear of flying, a Singapore Airlines flight had such severe turbulence out of nowhere that 70 people were injured and one person was actually killed. So there was a Boeing 777 traveling from London to Singapore with nearly 230 passengers and crew on board. And at about 10 hours into the flight, while passing over Myanmar at 37,000 feet, it encountered sudden extreme turbulence. With one passenger later telling Reuters, suddenly the aircraft started tilting up and there was shaking. So I started bracing for what was happening. And very

suddenly there was a very dramatic drop. And while some media outlets have said that the plane plummeted 6,000 feet, that's not true. With Flightradar24 pointing out that was actually a standard descent, and the turbulence came before that. So as far as what really happened, the plane suddenly dipped, then swung back up a few hundred feet, dipped again, climbed again, and then finally settled back at a cruising altitude. And all of that happening in about 90 seconds, which was obviously more than enough time to cause chaos. I mean, anyone who wasn't wearing a seatbelt immediately got thrown into the ceiling. With a passenger again telling Reuters, some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it. They hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it. And I mean, he's right. You can see parts of the ceiling and luggage compartments broken or collapsed in photos.

With another passenger telling the BBC, the thing I remember the most is seeing objects and things flying through the air. I was covered in coffee. And another adding, I hit my head on the ceiling, my wife did, some poor people who were walking around ended up doing somersaults. As well as a third saying, I heard that there was a guy hitting the roof in the toilet and he was injured quite badly too. And so the plane made an emergency landing in Bangkok soon afterward. And as for the one fatality, we know that it is a 73-year-old British man. And while the exact cause of death is not known yet, we have learned that he did have a heart condition. And as for the 71 reported injuries, only six of those are serious as of recording, with the rest mostly getting cuts and bruises and probably just PTSD for the rest of your life. You know, with this

story, I do want to note for you, severe turbulence is extremely rare. But it's also my job to tell you that reportedly because of climate change, it is going to make it more common during this century, which is a fun little thing. I wish I didn't know, but now we both know it. And then Belle Delphine and Scarlett Johansson are some ladies getting paid today, or rather one is getting paid and the other very likely will. Starting with Belle, because it's some good news, bad news. The good news is that she got her bath water money back, which arguably, yes, is a very random sentence if you don't know the backstory. Because Bell exposed that back in 2019 when she did that ultra viral stunt where she sold her bathwater, that she actually ended up not getting that money. Saying that PayPal closed her account and took the $90,000 that she had made.

Also saying that she was fined for violating the company's terms of service, even though they wouldn't actually tell her the rules that she broke. But it turns out after making it so public, she got her money. Business Insider now reporting that after Delphine tweeted about her years old problems with PayPal and several media outlets, including Business Insider, contacted PayPal to ask about the situation. The $90,000 has been returned to Delphine. The PayPal spokesperson saying, you know, they can't comment on individual accounts, but they did get rid of its heavy fines about a year ago. The bad news is that if you are not Belle Delphine and something like this happened to you, you're still probably shit out of luck. Because as Business Insider noted, the reversal wasn't automatic. Belle had to make this issue public on Twitter. It had to make headlines before she was able to get her money. With Belle even telling the outlet herself, if I didn't have any social media following,

they wouldn't have given my money back. Which is so shitty because what are all the normal non-social media users meant to do in this situation? I followed all the normal protocols and was roadblocked and gave up. You know, as I noted last time, you know, all of this is coming as banks are even closing accounts to sex workers. There's obstacles in so many different avenues, but also one of the common factors does appear that PayPal does uniquely suck. I mean, PayPal and Venmo have even been called out by the ACLU. So this is not new. And if I were to guess, most of the time, if there's not going to be a spotlight on them, they are still going to do shitty, shitty things. But then as far as Scarlett Johansson, you know how yesterday we talked about how OpenAI, they paused the Sky voice?

Or the voice that sounded very much like Scarlett Johansson? And I was like, I wouldn't be surprised if it's because Scarlett has some sort of lawsuit or some legal things happening. Well, an hour after I posted yesterday's show, Scarlett actually released a statement saying, Last September, I received an offer from Sam Altman, who wanted to hire me to voice the current ChatGPT 4.0 system. He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives. But adding, after much consideration and for personal reasons, I declined the offer. Nine months later, my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named Sky sounded like me. Saying that she was shocked and angered to hear that voice, noting that Sam Altman's tweet essentially insinuated that it was intentional.

And then adding, Two days before the ChatGPT 4.0 demo was released, Mr. Altman contacted my agent asking me to reconsider. Before we could connect, the system was out there. Saying that this forced her to hire legal counsel to figure out exactly how this Sky voice was actually created. Now for his part, Altman released a statement saying the voice was not hers and was never intended to sound like hers,

but he apologized for what he said were communication errors. Though, I will say, based off of things that he has openly tweeted, how it sounds, and the way things apparently played out, it seems like the actions here from OpenAI were just brazen and fucking stupid. Like, why would you involve and then seemingly screw over not only an incredibly famous actress, but one who has proven herself to be litigious. This is a woman who sued Disney, a company that employed her, and she got what she wanted. Right, and it actually went down in a way that helped change what the landscape there looked like. And so it'd be interesting to see if something similar happens here with OpenAI.

And then, you know, there was once a time where you could open up Twitter and you'd see a post and you'd go into the replies and you're like, the worst thing I'm going to see is some bat shit takes. But now, I mean, you click a post to see the replies and just ask and thrown left, right, up, down. Some ladies enter in the Konami code with some booty cheeks, often along with the phrase pussy and bio. Like opening up Twitter in a grocery store line is a dangerous game, which is actually why in recent months there have been more and more articles calling out the porn problem on Twitter and trying to figure out how the hell we got here. Because as many outlets noted, spam and bots have long been a problem on Twitter, even before Elon Musk's takeover. Though notably, I mean, one of Musk's biggest promises was actually that he was going to defeat the bots. But fast forward to now and you got New York Magazine saying the bots have not been defeated.

If anything, they've become much more visible across the platform in ads, searches, and especially replies. Right? Even though bots have always been a problem, you're not alone if you feel like you've been seeing more porny bots in the last several months. With the data scientists actually explaining to Rolling Stone in February that they've been increasingly finding ways to evade Twitter's spam detection. And saying that some of this appears to be part of a coordinated network, spamming out links associated with malware or phishing. With places like Bloomberg explaining that of all the social sites, Twitter was always the most permissive when it came to porn. Ever since Musk gutted content moderation teams, it just made it into more users' feeds. But what's funny is part of the reason we're even

talking about this today is that Elon Musk, among other things, appears to be one of the least self-aware people on the planet. For example, yesterday, Elon tweeted encouraging creators to stream on X. And he did so along with a meme suggesting that Twitch has become filled with too much sexual content. And while there is no doubt there is a fair share of scantily clad ladies on that platform, when you're the guy that owns a site that people first think of when they hear the phrase pussy in bio, you're gonna get mocked by all the people that are not already up your asshole. With big creators and streamers alike roasting Elon, Son Piker writing, ah yes, the pussy and bio website. Ludwig adding, the idea that you should stream on Twitter because there's

less sexual content is insane. Porn bots run this site. And Voice Critical saying, Goober has clearly never gone into the replies on a single tweet in the last six months. This site is infested with porn bots. Just spread asshole pictures on every post. And I don't know about you, but like, obviously Elon doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing platforms for sexual content, but it also feels like Twitter is just have a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing platforms for sexual content. But it also feels like Twitter is just less usable. If a situation blows up enough, it's like, OK, it feels current. It feels like something's happening.

But the amount of old content being repurposed and and just shit that I'm not interested in being recommended to me is at an all time high. And I hate that because it used to be such a reliable utility. And then we've got more news that we're going to dive into, but I just got to take a second to say shout out to Claritin for supporting this episode and providing us with samples. Your allergies can really stop you in your tracks. When my nose is plugged up, I feel like I can't do anything. I can't enjoy dinner because I can't taste my food. I can't work out because I feel tired and distracted. I can't even host this show because my voice sounds like a duck. Not okay. But luckily for those of us who live with the symptoms of allergies,

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passed back in August of 2022 that vastly expanded VA benefits to veterans who suffered toxic exposure primarily from burn pits. You know, that practice that largely stopped in the mid-2010s where U.S. military bases took all their trash, right, everything from plastics and rubber to chemicals and electronics, and they dumped it into giant pits and they doused it in jet fuel and set it on fire, which then predictably blanketed the service members nearby in a cloud of toxic fumes. And many, I mean, possibly millions of them suffered a host of medical conditions as a result. You know, stuff like cancer, allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, hypertension. I mean, the list goes on. The headline here is lots of bad stuff. But it was also hard to definitively prove that these conditions were service-related. And for years,

the VA resisted calls to recognize the connection, which led to protests from veterans, their families, and even the bamf that is Jon Stewart, who's been an outspoken advocate for this issue. Here's the bottom line. You cannot be America first when you put veterans last. You know, since the PACT Act was signed into law, the VA has actually received 1.65 million related claims, completed 1.32 million, and approved over a million, meaning that the approval rate is about 75%,

which is actually nuts because before the PACT Act, the VA denied 70% of claims related to burn pit exposure. So, I mean, those numbers, they basically flipped. And for all of that, it cost the government about $5.7 billion. Also a key thing here is that for President Biden, this issue is both personal and political. He believes that burn pits may have caused the brain cancer

that killed his son Beau in Iraq in 2015. Folks, in the last year, the VA delivered more benefits and processed more overall claims than ever in the entire history of the VA. It's truck month at GMC. Tackle the open road with added confidence in a 2025 Sierra 1500 Pro Graphite at 0% financing for up to 72 months. With an available 5.3 liter V8 engine, 20-inch high-gloss high gloss black painted aluminum wheels, off-road suspension with available two inch factory installed lift kit,

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Neutral. Refreshingly simple. And also, politically, this is an achievement before the November election. But the most important thing about talking about this news is that if you are watching this right now and you are a veteran and you think that you have suffered a condition related to toxic exposure, you can apply for benefits at va.gov slash pact and not feel like the odds are not on your side. And honestly, you never know how long the government will be helpful. So jump on this shit while you can. And then the world of political news, we got a few interesting things happening. The first being that we had two Republican senators, Ted Cruz and Katie Britt, actually proposing a bill to protect IVF at the federal level. And specifically with this,

the legislation would block states from receiving Medicaid funding if they ban IVF treatments. Though notably here, the proposal would also not force any organization or individual to provide these services and would allow states to implement their own health and safety measures. Now that said, as far as if this is going to pass, that remains unclear. After Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children and effectively banned IVF procedures in the state, many Republicans rushed to show their support. But the issue for many there still remains a political liability as they continue to figure out

how IVF fits into their anti-abortion messaging. And this, as Democrats, of course, have continued to target them on this heading into the election. Which also, as some saying this Republican proposal, it's really just a political move going into the election. Especially because there was a similar proposal by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth

that would have established a right to fertility treatments under federal law, but that failed to pass amid GOP objections. Now Cruz, for his part, has tried to brush that off by telling reporters that Duckworth that would have established a right to fertility treatments under federal law, but that failed to pass amid GOP objections. Now, Cruz, for his part, has tried to brush that off by telling reporters that Duckworth's bill didn't have Republican support because it tried to, in his words, backdoor in broader abortion legislation. But then also with this, even if Cruz is able to get the support that he needs in the Senate, key players in the House have been hesitant with all of this, with that including the House Speaker himself, who said he thinks the matter should be left to the states. Then, of course, we had Trump news with his defense

officially resting today in the hush money payments trial without the former president testifying on his own behalf, which you know, had been discussed a lot as a possibility up until the very end. And so with the prosecution also resting yesterday, the case is pretty much over now. The closing argument is set for next week. And of course, the jury deliberation soon after. But as far as what happens next, there are two big questions here. One, whether Trump will be convicted on any of the 34 counts against him. And two, how will this impact the election? With a belief that, you know, it would be a massive boost to Trump if he is found innocent. But if he is convicted here,

it could hurt him politically. Because while he likely wouldn't go to jail because he's a first time offender, recent polls have shown that he could lose around 10% of his supporters. But also, I put very little faith into any and every survey and poll when it comes to the election. What people say and what people do don't always line up, especially at 100% level. That just doesn't happen. But also a key thing with this is, you know, if he is convicted, Trump, of course, is going to appeal that case, which would then likely launch a months long process that would be very hard to resolve before election day. But also as the final stages of this trial were wrapping up, Trump's name was also in the news for another reason, which has to do with Truth Social, but not connected to the news that Truth Social posted a $327 million first quarter loss this

year. Instead, it's because he posted a video to the platform yesterday that he later removed this morning discussing what would happen if he won again in 2024. And in that, you see a reference to a unified Reich. And for those of you who need a quick refresher on your high school history, the word Reich means empire in German. But then more deeply, you know, has largely become associated with Hitler and the Nazi regime, the Third Reich. And in this video featuring hypothetical headlines celebrating a 2024 victory for Trump in the span of just 30 seconds, you see the phrase unified Reich shown three separate times, with many of the headlines and text blurbs appearing to reference World War I. And so with this, you had a lot of people up in arms, many pointing to his history of using rhetoric

echoing Hitler and Nazi Germany. And among those, you even had the Biden campaign, which immediately seized on the clip and accused Trump of foreshadowing the creation of a unified right. But to that, you had Trump's team hitting back in a statement saying, this was not a campaign video. It was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word while the president was in court. Though notably, the account that appears to have made the video is from a meme creator with the username RambleRant, who has actually worked with the Trump campaign before. And they shared images on X indicating that the video footage was just stock that came with a template. And then finally, here, we got an update on that big deep dive I did a while back about midwives in Maryland and the broken system that allows those responsible for the deaths of babies and home births to continue practicing.

Which, if you didn't see, I'll link to it down below. But, it's a really important story, and one that really didn't get the light that it deserved until the Washington Post published a super lengthy detailed investigation. And in that, specifically detailing the plight of one family and a midwife by the name of Karen Carr, with Carr keeping her license even after the deaths of three infants. But the news that we're talking about today is that a years-long effort to allow midwives to handle certain high-risk home births has now been halted, with lawmakers withdrawing draft legislation over safety concerns. Because that proposal would have allowed certified professional midwives to care for patients who had previously given birth via C-section but wanted to have a

vaginal birth at home for their next child, something widely known as VBEC, vaginal birth after C-section. And that move would have significantly expanded the client base for Maryland midwives, which is why we saw many of them lobbying for the bill, including Carr. But this notably as you had many doctors, hospital associations, and patient safety advocates pushing against the bill, arguing that it could threaten the lives of patients and their babies because of the risks associated with VBACs. With most doctors recommending that VBACs occur in controlled medical settings

with professionals who can perform emergency C-sections. But actually, back in January, the Maryland Board of Nursing, which oversees midwives and previously pushed for this legislation, they pulled their support, suddenly citing those same safety concerns. And so without that backing, the bill's sponsors decided to pull. And the timing of all this is especially key because the board's flip-flop happened just a few weeks after the Washington Post published their insanely damning investigation. And then we've got to talk about a lot of big news involving Israel and Palestine. First off, Israel's government's not doing itself any PR favors today after it seized equipment belonging

to the Associated Press and cut a live feed of northern Gaza. And this, of course, notably coming after Israel has faced accusations of becoming increasingly authoritarian due to a new law that heavily curbs news outlets that allegedly pose a national security risk. And as we talked about on the show before, Al Jazeera became the first network to effectively be shut down over the law. Now, Al Jazeera is actually important to this story as well, because Israeli officials claim that the issue wasn't that the AP was providing a news feed from Southern Israel and showing Northern Gaza, instead saying that the AP was giving that feed to the now-banned Al Jazeera.

With Israeli authorities also adding the claim that the feed, which just showed smoke coming from the bombed-out city, showed what they said were the activities of the IDF forces and that it endangers our fighters. But with that, the AP pushed back, saying the Qatari satellite channel is among thousands of clients

that receive live video feeds from the AP and other news organizations. So this is, you know, some saying, fortunately, in the grand scheme, the seized items aren't likely a huge financial blow to the Associated Press, which is reportedly just involving a camera, tripod, two mics, and a live motive. But with this, you know, it's less the items and more the principle of the matter that the AP and journalists are upset about, with the outlet urging Israel to return the gear and let them reinstate the stream. And all this is within Israel. Opposition leaders are growing increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu's continuous authoritarian

streak, saying things like this is not Al Jazeera. This is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes, saying this government behaves as if it has decided to make sure at all costs that Israel will be a pariah all over the world. They went crazy. And on the note of possibly being a loner on the world stage, it's been argued that Israel's been on the brink of that over Rafah. The city is the last major one in Gaza, and it's pretty much where Israel told Gazans to go at the start of the war if they wanted to be away from the fighting. But then we saw the fighting make its way down there,

and now Gazans have nowhere to flee to, leading to a tense situation where President Biden threatened to cut off a lot of U.S. support if Bibi approved major military operations in Rafah. And since then, there have been a few military actions across the city and region, although none to the level of a full-scale assault of the city. That's not to downplay what has happened, right? There are still a ton of people dying because of Israeli targeted attacks. There's clear evidence that Israel is slowly building up its attack across the city to the point that it now claims to control 30 to 40 percent of it. With this, you have the IDF and

Israeli sources saying this slower pace has also seemingly meant that nearly 1 million people have been evacuated from the city. Though it's argued that that wording puts a positive spin on the fact that 1 million people were forced from relative safety or face Israeli attacks. Even outside of the direct war zone, aides still lack it. Notably, this is happening as there are bombshell reports coming out that right-wing police officers and soldiers, that they're tipping off ultra-nationalist settlers and activists to where aid truck convoys are gonna be. Then those groups going out to slow down the convoys or block them completely. Those involved justifying this action by claiming that all the aid being sent to Gaza is being stolen by Hamas and weaponized to control the populace. Notably, their aid agencies on the ground deny that. Even the United States claims

that Israel has yet to provide evidence that this is a widespread problem. And then we've got even more news that we're going to dive into, but I just got to take a second to say, if you care about accessing a free internet or protecting your data and devices, why don't you have a VPN yet? I use NordVPN to keep my digital life secure and Linz and the kids, they love accessing streaming content from all around the world. But, you know, honestly, more and more, I've become increasingly grateful to Nord knowing that it's the best shot at maintaining access to information. You know, today we're seeing certain sites censored in Texas and in a few other states. And of course, access to TikTok content hangs in the balance.

But also with that, really, who knows what's next? And these days, a VPN could make the difference in accessing a free internet altogether through their proxy servers around the world. And with NordVPN enabled on your devices, your data is encrypted and flows between that device and Nord's secure servers. Whether it's a cybercriminal intercepting your data or a state actor attempting to block you, Nord keeps you isolated. Seriously, why haven't you gotten NordVPN yet? It's a no-brainer. I mean, you can get a huge discount on a two-year plan plus an additional four months free at nordvpn.com slash phil. It's nordvpn.com slash phil, the best deal on the internet, and it's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. And a special thanks to NordVPN for being a fantastic sponsor of our

show. And then, so you may have heard me talk about food deserts or news deserts, but have you ever heard about blood deserts? Which if you haven't, that makes sense. It's actually a new term that was coined in a paper by a coalition of 27 doctors, researchers, and patient advocates to raise awareness about an incredibly serious global health crisis that's not being talked about nearly enough. The fact that there is a shockingly high number

of people around the world who lack adequate access to blood transfusions. Right, and this paper published in Lancet Global Health specifically defines blood deserts as geographical areas where there's not enough blood in at least 75% of medical cases where it's required. Now, with that, one thing that I want to clarify right off the bat here is that while we've talked about blood shortages in the U.S., this is actually a totally different situation. First of all, the scale is just absolutely massive. We're talking hundreds of millions, if not billions of people living in these blood deserts. And as is often the case, this global crisis disproportionately

impacts low and middle income countries, aka LMICs, with studies showing that the vast majority of countries, 61%, have blood shortages. This is especially notable in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Oceania, where every single country is in deficit. And there are a number of factors that drive these shortages, like a basic lack of adequate donations. Or where the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 10 units of blood donated for every 1,000 community members. Low-income countries don't even reach half that amount. But the main common thread connecting all these blood deserts is that they're mostly in rural areas, where the vast majority of blood banks are concentrated in urban centers. And while international health organizations have long called for more as a solution to this

global crisis, that's easier said than done. You know, setting up and operating a blood bank, it's expensive. You need to build storage facilities and ensure there's enough energy for refrigeration. Also, the logistics of blood banking are very complex, requiring experts to recruit donors, collect blood, test samples, coordinate distribution. But many of the people who live in blood deserts, they're low-income, disadvantaged populations that already struggle to access sufficient healthcare systems, and they lack trained providers with the necessary expertise. And so as a result, there hasn't been nearly enough movement on that front. You have folks like Dr. Nakul Raykar, a trauma surgeon and co-author of the Lancet paper, explaining, it will take decades to build and fund enough functional blood banks to meet the world's needs.

And so for hundreds of millions of people who live in rural settings without any access to blood, the only hospitals with blood banks are hours away. And that's even more challenging for many people who have to first face difficult terrain or poor road infrastructure in order to even get to those urban centers. And all of this, as the consequences here, are incredibly dire. In places with access to blood, conditions that require transfusions like excessive bleeding after a physical trauma, hemorrhaging after giving birth, or anemia have all become highly treatable. But in those blood deserts, those conditions can become deadly very quickly. And this isn't hypothetical. Millions of people die preventable deaths every year because of blood shortages. And Ray Carr says the lack of blood supply is a huge reason that so many people die after trauma and LMICs. With in fact, some studies

finding that as many as 50 to 60% of trauma patients die in those countries compared to just 1 to 2% in high income countries like the States. Also, there's other research that's shown that postpartum hemorrhage causes more than 1 in every 3 maternal deaths globally. That makes it the single most common factor, and this also goes beyond emergency care. Doctors in areas with blood shortages, they also have to defer life-saving surgeries because of the high likelihood a patient's going to bleed out on the operating table without a transfusion to replenish blood loss. So clearly, you can see this is a huge, serious crisis. But despite the fact that this issue is so far reaching and it impacts so much of the world,

it's gotten very little attention, which is why we have Ray Carr and other researchers behind this paper, not only trying to bring more awareness on this overlooked topic, but also with that, they're proposing three innovative solutions to help the crisis. Though, one thing I want to make clear

is that these are not long-term solutions. These are really just stop gaps that can be used to help address shortages while more long-term efforts to expand and establish blood banks continue. And so the first proposal here has the potential for the biggest impact. And that's the idea of a walking blood bank, where healthcare providers are able to draw blood from community members in times of need, rather than storing blood in physical blood banks. And under this system, healthcare workers identify people to recruit as donors, mobilize them during a crisis, rapid test their blood for transmissible

diseases like HIV and syphilis on the spot, and then they transfuse the blood directly to the patient in need. And sometimes in very serious situations, healthcare workers themselves can also go through the process as well. So that can seem like an amazing solution, but there is also a major drawback. Many low and middle income countries banned walking blood banks in the 1990s and 2000s amid the AIDS crisis. But that largely in response to pressure from HIV activists and the World Health Organization, which called for zero tolerance for blood transmitted cases. You know, many of those policies still remain. I mean, even the WHO's most recent guidance from April of 2023 strongly recommends against walking blood banks unless there is an acute emergency.

But the WHO's spokesperson telling NPR, while the transfusion of blood collected from donors to patients can save lives, it involves risks itself and could cause serious consequences and even death of patients. You know, that position has been backed up by others, like a former medical officer for the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, with them specifically pointing to accuracy issues with rapid diagnostic tests. Saying in countries in Africa and Asia, the environmental conditions are so diverse and sometimes hostile, so if you don't have the right storage conditions for the test kit, you will not have the correct results. He also noted that personnel in these rural areas might not necessarily have the same experience as urban clinicians. But this is you also had other experts pushing back against

that. Noting that studies show rapid diagnostic tests could screen walking blood bank donations for HIV and other diseases with 98 to 99% accuracy at local clinics. So as a result, you have people like Dr. Nabhojit Roy, a retired rural surgeon from India, telling NPR that while safety is important, these concerns have been overemphasized to the point where they are trading off with life-saving solutions. Noting that walking blood banks are actually a tool that the U.S. military effectively uses in war zones. Explaining what we live through every day in these blood deserts is nothing short of that. How many people need to die before you say this is war? And also going on to say that the WHO's current guidance for walking blood banks fails to acknowledge that blood deserts are a state of emergency. Adding

extreme blood scarcity in much of the world is not an impending catastrophic event, but the current status quo. So while walking blood banks could be an effective tool for addressing blood deserts, this strategy is difficult, if not impossible, to implement without a total overhaul of the current system. Which then brings us to the second short-term solution, drone-based blood delivery. But under this model, drones are launched from blood banks in major cities and then sent to hard-to-reach rural areas. Because often, drones can surpass difficult terrain, bad weather, traffic. You know, this is something that's actually been successfully tested. Like in one northeastern Indian state in the Himalayas, where experts say blood used to take two to three days

to arrive. But now, with drones, it can reach clinics in just four hours. But that, while there are still issues with it, first of all, it doesn't address underlying problems with lacking blood donations in general. As well as always a big deal with these things, drone programs are expensive. With one in Rwanda, for example, costing $4 million. But then finally, the third idea this paper outlines to help blood deserts is a process called autotransfusion, where blood pooling inside of a patient's body is collected by surgeons, run through a device that cleans it, and then re-transfused into the patient. You know, there are a number of benefits to this. First off, it saves time and money because doctors

won't have to run tests for diseases or cross-check matching blood types. That in turn also allows them to allocate in-demand blood to other patients in need. And in fact, this is actually something that's already pretty commonly used in the US. And while price barriers have prevented it from spreading to LMICs, there are a number of groups working on more cost-effective methods that have the potential to revolutionize the use of auto-transf places that need it most right so with all that said like clearly there are some good ideas being put out there with all this some experts like raycar say that the biggest hurdle is just raising awareness about blood deserts and getting people to care and so in sharing all of those few i mean part of this is hoping that it does draw more attention to the issue because

then maybe a few of you share the information share this segment and it could be a small the smallest part of paving the way for an actual change, a positive change in the future. But of course, like with everything on the show, but especially on these deep dives, I'd love to know your thoughts here. But that is the end of your Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning dive into the news. And of course, I'll see you soon because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here for more news tomorrow.