With flu cases through the roof, unprecedented flooding, and no end to Covid in sight; 2022 saw blood donations take a nasty nosedive.  

In response - Lifeblood – the branch of the Australian Red Cross – has continued to call for more donors, but also requested a decades old ban limiting a specific group of people from donating blood be lifted. 

Dr Sophie Calabretto talks to Cosmos Magazine science journalist Jacinta Bowler about the origins of the mad cow disease and the blood ban that stopped those exposed to the virus from donating blood in Australia for 22 years. 

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