By 1980 in the US, payment for blood had come to be seen as unethical. But 70 percent of the country’s plasma came from paid sellers and no one saw anything wrong with it. BPL did not act upon Dr. Allen’s warnings. Hemophiliacs had no intention of giving up Factor and going back to endless hospital stays. They wanted it for three reasons: It gave them a life. They didn’t know about hepatitis C. And no one had told them about HIV, insidiously making its way to being a global pandemic.
