Altruism News - Covid-19 Plasma Donation is Fuelled by Kindness. No Religion Involved

Convalescent plasma is a treatment being trialled for Covid-19 and involves blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients being transfused into patients who are currently in hospital with the virus.

News - Research finds Covid plasma donation is fuelled by kindness - University of Nottingham

In a piece of research by psychologists from Nottingham University with colleagues from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and the University of Queensland Australia, has identified 6 main motivations for recovered Covid-19 patients in the UK donating blood plasma, which is being used to treat people who are currently ill with the virus.

The study involved 419 UK residents who who indicated they had been infected with Covid-19 and were eligible to donate convalescent plasma. They were asked about their awareness of convalescent plasma, motivations, and barriers to donating.

The six main motivations were:

• Altruism from adversity.
• Post-traumatic growth.
• Moral and civic duty to help research.
• Patriotism and control.
• Reluctant altruism.
• Signalling reluctant altruism.

The use of convalescent plasma as a treatment relies on the generosity and ‘altruism’ of those who have recently recovered from the virus to help those currently ill. To enhance the recruitment of convalescent plasma donors – much as blood donors in general – we need to understand what would motivate, or even defer, those who are eligible to be convalescent plasma donors to donate.

Professor Eamonn Ferguson, co-lead author
University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology.

Chief amonst these was altrism from adversity - people felt they had a moral obligation for reciprocity - to pay somethign back to the society that had helped them survive, and moral and civic duty - the belief that it was the right thing to do and a desire to help family and friends and to support research.

The interesting thing is that none of these motives involved religion such as in the hope of a reward in some assumed afterlife, or an act of atonement for some sin or other.

Bear in mind that the UK has a very popular socialised health service with a strong sense of joint ownership and of a collective responsibility to support it. The concept of health-care free at the point of need is central to our sense of community and fair-play. The idea of treating the misfortune of others as something to be exploited for profit is deeply repugnant to most of us.

To me, this highlights the distinction between modern civilised societies running on humanist principles and the primitive, tribal societies in the Bronze that codified what they thought of as morals in the Ten Commandments. Now conspicuous by its absence from this code is something on the lines of "Thou shalt not profit from the misfortune of others". Of course, there are other equally important things missing such as prohibitions on child abuse, racism, slavery, etc, but that's a different matter altogether. Those writing those codes were writing them for a people whom they needed to see themselves as above their surrounding tribes and willing to go in for genocide and land-theft with no moral scruples when called upon to do so.

Rise of the non-religious in the UK.

Source: NatCen - Church of England number at record low

Even the author of the later attempt to revise this code to appeal to the Hellenized part of the Roman Empire, in the New Testament with the 'Beatitudes' could only think of a promise of reward as the reason for doing good. Nowhere is there a sense of doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, or even because it creates a better, safer society to live in.

The results of this study were published open access in the Journal of the British Blood Transfusion Service, Transfusion Medicine a few days ago:

Abstract

Objectives

To determine the motivators and barriers to COVID‐19 convalescent plasma donation by those in the United Kingdom who have been diagnosed with or who have had symptoms of SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) but who have not donated.

Background

Convalescent plasma from people recovered from COVID‐19 with sufficient antibody titres is a potential option for the treatment and prevention of COVID‐19. However, to date, recruiting and retaining COVID‐19 convalescent plasma donors has been challenging. Understanding why those eligible to donate COVID‐19 convalescent plasma have not donated is critical to developing recruitment campaigns.

Methods/Materials

A total of 419 UK residents who indicated that they had been infected with COVID‐19 and who lived within 50 km of sites collecting COVID‐19 convalescent plasma completed an online survey between 25th June and 5th July 2020. Respondents completed items assessing their awareness of convalescent plasma, motivations and barriers to donation and intention to donate COVID‐19 convalescent plasma.

Results

Awareness of COVID‐19 convalescent plasma was low. Exploratory factor analysis identified six motivations and seven barriers to donating. A stronger sense of altruism through adversity and moral and civic duty were positively related to intention to donate, whereas generic donation fears was negatively related.

Conclusions

Once potential donors are aware of convalescent plasma, interventions should focus on the gratitude and reciprocity that those eligible to donate feel, along with a focus on (potentially) helping family and norms of what people ought to do. Fears associated with donation should not be neglected, and strategies that have been successfully used tor recruit whole‐blood donors should be adapted and deployed to recruit COVID‐19 convalescent plasma donors.

Masser, Barbara M.; Ferguson, Eamonn; Thorpe, Rachel; Lawrence, Claire; Davison, Tanya E.; Hoad, Veronica; Gosbell, Iain B.
Motivators of and barriers to becoming a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor: A survey study
Transfusion Medicine; 2020; 1– 10. doi: 10.1111/tme.12753

Copyright: © 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published Free access.
(Formal permission to reprint requested)

Above all, this study shows how a largely secular society like the UK, where religion now play little part and where non-affiliation and outright rejection of religion are the norm, are still, despite the claims of (mostly) American fundamentalist seeking to exploit the fears and superstitions of their compatriots that Godlessness = lawlessness and that without the fear of punishment or the promise of rewards, people would be selfish with no sense of right and wrong.

The truth is that a 'Godless' people such as the British, are more altruistic and have a higher sense of civic duty and altruism than in many 'God-fearing' countries where church attendance and religious affiliation is high, yet crime is rife and a readiness to expoit those in need is seen as good business acumen. There a socialised health service under collective ownership and control, is regarded as undesirable because those in need might get something for nothing.

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