When I went to the blood bank on Friday, I saw something funny: there were banners up declaring "Blood Drive Today." I wondered Why "today"? Why is today different from all other days?
San Francisco's COVID-19 new case rate has been sneaking back up lately. By Friday, the rate was clearly above 10 cases per day per 100K population. That is, the rate was clearly above my threshhold for non-essential outings. I'd again stopped going to restaurants; I'd again stopped shopping for groceries in person. But I'm still donating blood; that still seems "essential," I guess?
Anyhow, I wondered about the banners. Why hang temporary "Blood Drive Today" banners outside a blood bank? Those banners had been hanging there for a while, too; I'd first noticed them weeks before.
So I piled conjecture on top of conjecture.
I thought about how COVID-19 has shifted most office work to be remote. I remembered working in offices. Sometimes, there were blood drives in offices: phlebotomists would set up stations so office workers could donate blood conveniently.
But now there weren't so many shared offices. Now there weren't so many opportunities for office blood drives.
I guess the blood bank shut down at least one of their mobile blood-donation teams. I guess they realized they had some leftover "Blood Drive Today" banners. I guess they decided to hang the banners up at a blood bank. No point wasting perfectly good banners.
The mayor's exhorting workers to go back to their downtown offices. I'm guessing that the blood bank people are guessing that's wishful thinking.
