Last month, Bravo's Andy Cohen revealed that he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Andy, who has since returned to hosting the show live from his apartment, recently expressed frustration over the FDA's "antiquated and discriminatory guidelines," which prevented him from donating his plasma to help in the battle against COVID-19.
On last night's episode of WWHL, Andy said, "After recovering from [the] coronavirus, I wanted to see if there was something I could do to help people who were infected. I signed up for a program ... where you could donate plasma, which is rich in antibodies, to those still battling the virus."
He continued, "I was told that due to antiquated and discriminatory guidelines by the FDA to prevent HIV, I am ineligible to donate blood because I'm a gay man."
"Even the new relaxed rules require gay men to abstain from sex for three months, whether they're in a monogamous relationship or not, before giving blood — though no such blanket restrictions exist for people of other sexual orientations," Andy noted.
Driving the point home even further, Andy pointed out the hypocrisy in the FDA's stressing an "urgent need for plasma from survivors," yet still refusing to allow gay men to donate without unnecessary restrictions, even though we have the ability to rapidly test for HIV in all donated blood.
"Why are members from my community being excluded from helping out when so many people are sick and dying? Maybe because we're valuing stigma over science? I don't know," he said.
"My blood could save a life, but instead it's over here boiling," he added.
"It is bad enough that quarantine has us wondering what day it is. I'm sitting here wondering what year it is. We need to think about this and do better," he concluded.
