Watch: Andy Cohen Says FDA's Blood Ban is Needless Discrimination in a Time of COVID-19

You can't say he didn't warn you: Andy Cohen made it plain from the start on a recent episode of his show "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" that he had "a bit of a rant" to offer his viewers.

Broadcasting from home - as many other talk hosts have done at a time when social distancing is necessary to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus - Cohen, who recently recovered from the illness, explained how he had been interested in participating in a program that seeks to test whether antibodies from the plasma of COVID-19 survivors could confer some therapeutic benefit to those who are gravely ill with the disease.

Though many people do not suffer life-threatening complications from the coronavirus, some do, and people with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, kidney disease, or immunosuppression are particularly vulnerable.

"I was told that due to antiquated and discriminatory guidelines from the FDA," Cohen related, "I am ineligible to donate blood because I am a gay man."

Those restrictions were first introduced in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Though there is still no cure or vaccine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, science has taken enormous strides in terms of treatments that enable people living with HIV to expect to live normal lifespans. Medical science is also capable of detecting HIV in donated blood in less than a week after the donor might have been exposed.

Moreover, in an age of marriage equality, there is no reason to think that gay or bisexual men are any more likely to be infected with HIV than a typical heterosexual man. The FDA's policy, however, treats all gay men as suspect and bans men who have sex with men from donating blood or blood products unless they have been celibate for at least three months.

Even that restriction - which does not apply to heterosexuals - is a recent improvement over the older policies; for years, gay men were banned for life from blood donation, and when that ban was initially relaxed, the restriction required gay men to be celibate for at a year before their blood would be accepted for donation.

Cohen took note of this, then opined:

Here's the thing: This virus is ravaging our planet. The FDA says there is an urgent need for plasma from survivors. All donated blood is screened for HIV, and a rapid HIV test can be done in 20 minutes or less. So why the three-month rule? 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?

Cohen added a zinger:

My blood could save a life, but instead it's over here, boiling!

Cohen went on to hold up the absurdity of the ban and its antiquated assumptions to the reality of a world in which far greater shifts have, by necessity, had to occur.

"We're quarantining, we're social distancing, we're wearing masks! Why can't we adapt when it comes to this rule?"

Watch the clip of Cohen's take on the issue below.