“It’s stupid”: Kochie blasts unfair blood donation rule
Sunrise co-host David “Kochie” Koch has dubbed a blood donation rule as “stupid”, revealing he is one of the thousands prevented from rolling up their sleeves as a result.
The Channel 7 presenter shared that he was one of the many people who lived in the UK between 1980 and 1996 who aren’t allowed to give blood in Australia due to fears of mad cow disease.
“I’ve never been able to give blood since working and living in the UK in the ‘90s,” Kochie said on Tuesday’s episode.
“It was a long time ago. It’s stupid.”
Kochie added that even his children are affected because they lived overseas.
His comments come after a news story about the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, which is considering lifting the ban due to severe shortages in blood banks.
The organisation has called for more people to donate after many people cancelled or didn’t attend their bookings due to the Omicron wave of COVID-19.
According to the charity’s website, Lifeblood currently doesn’t accept donations from anyone who lived in the UK - including England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Island, the Isle of Man, and both the Channel and Falkland Islands - for six months or more between January 1 1980 and December 31 1996.
During this period, the UK experienced one of the highest numbers of a variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or ‘mad cow disease’) called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). It was thought that people contracted this disease by eating products from cows infected with the ‘mad cow disease’.
“A small number of people also contracted vCJD through blood transfusions, which is why we can’t take blood donations from anyone who has received a transfusion in the UK since 1980,” the website reads.
“We have recently prepared a submission proposing a change to this. Our submission is currently being reviewed, and we look forward to having more to say soon.”
David ‘Kochie’ Koch has called out a rule that prevents him from donating blood to the Red Cross. Image: @sunriseon7 (Twitter)
With about 4500 planned donations falling through each day, Lifeblood executive director of donor services Cath Stone said now was the time to review the rule restricting donations.
“The peak of (mad cow cases) we saw in 2000. We haven’t seen any cases since 2010,” she told Sunrise.
“That is why now is the opportune time for us to review that based on the latest evidence. We are looking forward to the outcomes of that submission.”
Image: @sunriseon7 (Twitter)