Hurray! Boo! No antibody test for me

[nineveh_uk]

I got a phone call from the plasma clinical trial people! They were interested in me! AFter the reminder of what it is and consent etc. they start the questionnaire - Covid-19, whether I had a test, timing etc. Do I have a blood disorder? Do I ever have difficulty with blood tests or donation? What is my height and weight? And DAMN!! I'm not big enough - apparently for my height I would need to weigh 74kg in order for my body to meet the criteria for volume given the amount that they remove :-( Oh well, I'll just have to wait for an antibody test another way.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, bother!

[nineveh_uk]

Indeed!

[alithea]

Ah, that's a shame. I always had the same issue with donating blood as a student

[nineveh_uk]

I think I might sign up* to donate blood instead, at least a bit later in the summer, as I'm definitely eligible for that! It sounds as if they want to be assured of taking A Lot at once, which I can see makes sense, but it is disappointing.

*I've never actually given blood, what with not being OK with blood tests when I'm younger, and being prone to too many bugs later, Covid-19 aside I'm a lot less likely to catch other things at the moment! But it can wait until I'm not suddenly swoopingly tired.

[azdak]

If at your height you have to weigh 74kg in order to qualify, an awful lot of people aren't going to get tested. Just how much blood do they need to remove - half a bucketful?

[nineveh_uk]

I think she said about 560ml, which isn't that much more than a normal blood donation, but I suppose they might be being cautious with a donor population that by definition has just been quite ill. But I feel that with that limit for my height, they must be ruling out an awful lot of people.

I assume that the normal antibody test is about a standard tube, though!