Since the start of the  pandemic there’s been a dramatic drop in blood donations. And now, the US is facing one of the worst blood shortages in decades. New York City is no exception. To give you a sense of just how much New York City hospitals need - it’s around 33,000 blood donations every month. And throughout the past two years there have been times where hospitals were collecting as little as half of that.

But a lot of New Yorkers are still hesitant to donate for a lot of reasons - one big one is the fear of catching COVID. This is why organizations like the New York Blood Center are taking extraordinary measures to stop the spread. In this episode we talk to Andrea Cefarelli. Andrea is the senior executive director at the New York Blood Center.

New York Blood Center (schedule an appointment): https://www.nybc.org/

COVID-19 free at-home tests: https://www.covidtests.gov/

At-home testing instructions: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/self-testing.html

Become an Epicenter-NYC member: https://epicenter-nyc.com/become-a-member/

Our intro music: http://karavikamusic.com/

This episode was brought to you by McKinsey & Company. The Shortlist is McKinsey's weekly curated sampling of need to know stories about work, the economy, and culture: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/the-shortlist