GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Milk dumping in Wisconsin, empty shelves in the Twin Cities. Why?
While Facebook photos showed farmers in Wisconsin dumping milk, some grocery store milk coolers in the Twin Cities stood empty. Almost instantly, thanks to COVID-19, demand shifted from cheese – primarily sold in now shuttered bars and restaurants – to the bottled milk now being guzzled in stay-at- home households. For Wisconsin’s already suffering dairy industry, it’s been a perfect storm. Cheese plants aren't set up to bottle milk. And bottling plants only have capacity to bottle so much. Changing a cheese plant to a bottling plant could take months, while the demand for fluid milk is now.
Researchers around the world are looking at different ways to treat COVID-19 patients. One of those ways is through convalescent plasma therapy. Patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have antibodies in their blood that can fight the virus. A donor's plasma can then be transfused into a very sick COVID-19 patient who doesn't have that immunity yet. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration named Mayo Clinic as the national site for the Convalescent Plasma Expanded Access Program. The FDA anticipates through this effort they will be able to move thousands of units of plasma to patients who need it in the coming weeks.
Starting Tuesday, the Mall of America will be hosting a series of blood drives to help with the urgent need for donations. The drives are happening in the North Atrium of the mall on April 7, 8, 17 and 18 from 10 am to 4 pm. All slots are currently filled, but other upcoming blood drive opportunities can be found online or on the American Red Cross Blood Donor app. Susan Thesenga, Communications Manager for the American Red Cross, noted that Minnesotans have stepped up to donate blood, and the National Guard, YMCA and Minnesota Wild are helping to host blood drives as well. When donating blood, the American Red Cross is practicing social distancing, moving beds farther apart, doing extra cleaning, and staff are wearing masks.
