Red Cross announces severe emergency blood shortage, calls on Americans to donate
Ojos De Hojalata/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The American Red Cross declared a severe emergency blood shortage on Monday and called on people to donate.
The humanitarian organization, which says it’s the largest supplier of blood products for hospitals and for patient need in the U.S., said the demand from hospitals has outpaced the available supply of blood.
Dr. Courtney Lawrence, divisional chief medical officer at American Red Cross, told ABC News that almost one-third of the organization’s blood stores across the country have been depleted due to hospital need.
Lawrence said inclement winter weather, which has forced more than 400 Red Cross blood drives around the U.S. to be canceled, is among the reasons that donations are down.
Additionally, the U.S. is experiencing a moderately severe flu season, with some states reporting record levels of weekly cases and hospitalizations.
“That can overwhelm our health care system, and it can also mean that donors may not be feeling well enough to come in to donate or may be busy taking care of their loved ones who are sick,” Lawrence said.
When blood supplies are low, it can affect the ability to treat patients in need including trauma patients, chemotherapy patients with underlying blood disorders, those living with sickle cell disease and others, Lawrence said. She called on Americans to donate if they’re able to.
Reihaneh Hajibeigi, 34, from Austin, Texas, was one of those patients in need, telling ABC News that blood transfusions saved her life.
Hajibeigi said she lost a lot of blood while giving birth to her first child in 2023, and that the hospital gave her some blood and sent her home with her husband and newborn daughter.
“After about a couple weeks, things started to not be so great,” she told ABC News. “What I assumed was just being new mom tired really turned into fatigue. I was losing a lot of blood. I was starting to just not feel so great”
When Hajibeigi went back to the doctor two and a half weeks after giving birth, she said medical staff discovered she had retained a roughly four-centimeter piece of placenta on her uterine wall that was becoming toxic.
Hajibeigi said she underwent a procedure the next morning and began hemorrhaging during the operation, losing about 40% of her total blood volume.
In the recovery room, Hajibeigi said she started to crash again from the loss of blood and doctors raced to give her a blood transfusion.
“Fortunately, they had the blood on hand. They were able to get it into my system and basically brought me back to life,” she said.
Hajibeigi said she hopes that by sharing her story, she can encourage people to donate if they’re able, especially knowing there’s a chance their donation can help someone in need.
“It just made it that much clearer how vital blood donations are and how much sometimes we take it for granted, just assuming that the blood supply was always going to be intact,” she said. “And in that case, I needed the blood. Wonderful.”
“It’s a scary thought to think what if the blood product that I needed wasn’t there?” Hajibeigi said. “Then what would have happened?”
An Influenza Vaccine is prepared for a patient on September 12, 2025, in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — Flu activity is continuing to climb across the U.S. as hospitalizations rise, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC estimates there have been 120,000 hospitalizations so far this season, a 38.8% increase from the prior week.
Additionally, the CDC says there have been at least 11 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths due to flu so far this season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
In this May 13, 2025, file photo, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand speaks at a press conference on the World Trade Center Health Program at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Congress has approved legislation for a funding fix that fully supports the World Trade Center Health Program and prevents a projected multibillion-dollar shortfall that threatened the program’s future.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., highlighted the action as a critical step toward protecting long-term care for those sickened by toxic exposure after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program honors our promise to never forget 9/11 survivors and the brave first responders who put their lives on the line for our country,” Gillibrand said.
Since its creation in 2011 through an act of Congress, the program reports it has helped over 150,000 individuals get care and medical monitoring. Gillibrand said the package will fully fund the program through 2040.
The new measure updates how the program is financed, allowing it to meet rising medical costs and growing enrollment without the risk of sudden funding gaps.
Supporters say the change provides long-term stability for the thousands of people whose health was harmed by exposure to toxic chemicals after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
“Making sure our 9/11 first responders and survivors have the resources they need to cope with the long-term health effects from toxic exposure has been one of my top priorities for my entire service in Congress,” Gillibrand said. “I am relieved that, after years of fighting tirelessly for its passage, this funding has been signed into law.”
The World Trade Center Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for first responders, cleanup workers, and community members affected by 9/11-related exposure. Advocates stressed that stable funding is critical not only for current patients but also for people who may develop related illnesses years or decades later.
Doctors, responders, advocates, and survivors have long warned that the program faced a looming financial crisis.
Enrollment has continued to grow as more people develop cancers and chronic conditions linked to toxic dust and debris, while aging patients require more complex care, Benjamin Chevat, executive director for nonprofit Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, told ABC News.
An outdated funding formula failed to reflect those realities, raising concerns that treatment could be delayed or limited, advocates cautioned.
Still, supporters say funding alone does not resolve all of the program’s challenges.
“Finally, fully funding the World Trade Center Health Program after so many years is a real accomplishment, for the 9/11 responders and survivors who walked the halls of Congress and called their representatives, and for Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Sen. Gillibrand among others who worked to get it done,” Chevat said.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is named after a New York City Police Department officer whose 2006 death was linked to exposures from the World Trade Center disaster.
Chevat said that some challenges remain for the program.
Certification of new conditions has slowed, staffing shortages persist at some clinical sites, and administrative backlogs have delayed care for certain patients, Chevat said. Addressing these issues will ensure the program can fully deliver on its mission, he added.
Dr. Joseph Wendt, a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
Catherine Stein, far right, speaks during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on September 18, 2025 in Chamblee, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet Thursday and Friday to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, adjuvants and contaminants, and the hepatitis B vaccine.
It marks the third meeting this year of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members, replacing them with his own hand-selected picks, many of whom have expressed vaccine-skeptic views.
This is also the first meeting since the chair of the ACIP, Martin Kulldorff — a former Harvard Medical School professor — accepted a permanent role at HHS. Pediatric cardiologist and former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon Dr. Kirk Milhoan will chair the committee during the upcoming meeting.
Milhoan is a fellow with the Independent Medical Alliance, a group that has advocated for unproven treatments for COVID-19, including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
A draft agenda posted online indicates the ACIP will discuss and vote on recommendations around the hepatitis B vaccine on day one and discuss the childhood vaccine schedule on day two.
“I think every single thing on that agenda is concerning,” Dr. Richard Besser, resident and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and acting director of the CDC during the administration of former President Barack Obama, told ABC News. “We have an administration [that] seems hellbent on undermining people’s trust in vaccination.”
Hepatitis B vaccine
Since the new ACIP members were installed, the committee has recommended against flu vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal — despite public health experts saying there is no evidence that low doses of thimerosal in vaccines cause harm — and has narrowed existing recommendations for the combined MMRV shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
The first day of the meeting will include presentations and discussions about the hepatitis B vaccine.
The agenda also lists a scheduled vote and, although it’s not clear what will be voted on, experts believe the universal hepatitis B vaccine dose given at birth will be at issue.
The CDC currently recommends that the first dose of the three-dose hepatitis B vaccine be given to babies within 24 hours of birth. Doctors have said the universal birth dose recommendation has virtually eliminated hepatitis B among babies in the U.S.
However, earlier this year, Kulldorff questioned whether it was “wise” to administer shots “to every newborn before leaving the hospital.” Separately, Kennedy has falsely linked the hepatitis B vaccine to autism.
Some experts believe the panel will vote to either delay or remove the decades-long recommendation that newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
“I am concerned that the committee is going to attempt to minimize the harm resulting from any changes to this long-standing recommendation,” Dr. Fiona Havers, a former CDC official who worked on vaccine policy and led the CDC’s tracking of hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, told ABC News.
“They’re going to say that there’s no need to vaccinate babies at birth because you can screen mothers and only vaccinate babies born to patients who test positive or whose status is unknown,” she continued.
Havers said only vaccinating high-risk babies was the policy in the U.S. before the universal birth dose was implemented, but it was changed after doctors saw that babies and children continued to be infected with hepatitis B.
Additionally, babies infected with hepatitis B are at risk for chronic infection as well as liver disease, liver failure and even liver cancer.
“Babies can be infected not only by their mother if she has hepatitis B, but also by caregivers or others in the community who may not know that they have hepatitis B and any change to the routine recommendation means that we will see an increase in hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” Havers said.
She added, “Any hepatitis B infections that occur because a child wasn’t vaccinated at birth are an avoidable tragedy. We will start seeing more children living with a lifelong incurable infection that can lead to death from cirrhosis or liver cancer.”
Childhood immunization schedule
Besser said he is particularly concerned about the second day, which includes a discussion about the childhood immunization schedule.
The draft agenda is scant on details aside from topics including CDC vaccine risk monitoring evaluation discussion, vaccine schedule history, vaccine schedule considerations and a discussion of the childhood/adolescent immunization schedule
Earlier this year, the ACIP formed two new work groups, one focusing on the cumulative effects of children and adolescents receiving all recommended vaccines on the schedule and another reviewing vaccines that haven’t been examined for more than seven years.
Kennedy has suggested that children receive too many vaccine doses “to be fully compliant” and that the number of doses children receive has increased from three doses during his childhood to 92 doses today.
Doctors previously told ABC News that children actually receive about 30 vaccine doses and that the number of available, recommended immunizations has grown since the first vaccines were recommended in the late 1940s, based on evolving science and manufacturing capacity.
Besser said he has not heard safety concerns about the schedule from vaccine experts, pediatricians, those who administer vaccines or patient advocacy groups.
“There had not been concerns raised around the immunization schedule and forming a group that is going to look at [the schedule] wholesale when the going-in presumption is that it’s not safe really, really worries me,” Besser said.
The panel will also discuss vaccine “adjuvants and contaminants,” according to the draft agenda.
In a 2023 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Kennedy claimed aluminum adjuvants are neurotoxins and are associated with allergies, including food allergies.
The CDC says adjuvants are ingredients used in some vaccines to help boost the immune response and have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years.
