By Conor Ferguson and Merritt Enright

After the Food and Drug Administration changed the rules for blood donations from gay and bisexual men earlier this month, coronavirus survivor Lukus Estok saw an opportunity to help other patients recover from the disease. For years, the FDA has restricted men who have had sex with men in the preceding year from donating blood, but loosened its rules on April 2 as a way to address a sharp drop in donors during the coronavirus outbreak.

Within days, Estok tried to donate blood plasma for a test program in New York City that treats severely ill COVID-19 patients with plasma from patients who have developed antibodies and recovered from the disease. He said he was turned away after revealing he was gay.

"I was shocked," said Estok, 36. "I've been through a month of hell with this virus. I'm finally recovered. I've been through a screening process that tells me I'm a potential candidate to help somebody else and now I'm being told I can't."

NBC News found that despite the rule change hundreds of the nation’s blood centers are still unable to accept blood from gay men, even though there's a desperate need for blood at U.S. hospitals and a desire to get plasma with antibodies from COVID-19 survivors. Both the Red Cross and America's Blood Centers, which together represent 800 banks nationwide, told NBC News they haven't been able to accept donations.

Estok and other gay men who have tried to give blood since April 2 have been unable to do so because many blood donation centers have not yet trained staffers or updated their computer systems to accommodate the new rule. It's also because a trade group to which nearly all U.S. blood banks belong has not yet gotten approval for an important document from the FDA. Read more via NBC