Reminder to donate blood, this is what allows medical professionals to save lives, be it in dramatic incidents such as this one, or in more mundane settings.
It can be worth checking if a regional health provider has their own donation network. The Red Cross does blood drives here but there is also a location in one of the local clinics that makes appointments. Much more convenient than a blood drive.
The Red Cross has every day donation centers in larger cities, just not in as many places as health providers.
I'm glad they don't want my blood, I really dislike vampires.
I'm guessing it makes sense as a rough way to limit infectious deceases. You need only look to China to see how far something like AIDS can spread if you don't do blood donations right. If I recalls correctly they infected something like 50k people by accident.
Notice, that the next infectious decease like AIDS might not have been discovered yet. Hence, why a lot of precautions around blood donations makes sense.
The Red Cross has every day donation centers in larger cities, just not in as many places as health providers.