Singh U, Brown B, Young PP.

Transfusion. 2026 Jun 22. doi: 10.1111/trf.70304. Online ahead of print.

PMID: 42333614

This study analyzes blood donation patterns from five major U.S. mass casualty events and five national appeals (2000–2024), finding that whole blood surges rapidly during crises, driven by younger, first-time donors, while platelet donation relies almost entirely on a narrow, aging base of repeat donors with lower capacity for rapid expansion.

This matters because platelet apheresis donor mobilization remains poorly understood compared to whole blood, and most emergency recruitment strategies are built around whole blood dynamics that simply don't translate to platelets. As trauma, oncology, and prehospital transfusion programs increasingly rely on apheresis platelets, this gap represents a structural vulnerability: blood centers currently have little visibility into how to actually mobilize, grow, or retain platelet donors during a crisis.