Parents who have had children in China all have an impression: as soon as you plan to get pregnant, various promotions may come one after another. Because Chinese parents are particularly willing to spend money on their children, businesses also cater to their preferences. Chinese parents are willing to spend money on their children, I think that is unmatched worldwide.
Even before the child is conceived, many parents begin to prepare to spend money on the child – for fetal protection, prenatal education, and so on. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that the Chinese nation is willing to spend money on the education of the next generation; the disadvantage is that spending money on children is often equated with imposing education on children. This is actually not quite the same.
In this process, some IQ taxes are naturally generated. Because you think that spending money is equivalent to education, many businesses cater to your preferences and try to make you spend money on your children, making you feel like a responsible parent.
When I lived in Beijing, there were many young people in our community, and there were also many children born. These IQ tax projects were staged in the community every now and then.
I still have an impression. Once, there was a “0 to 3 year old genius project” to gather us parents for promotion. If you went, you would get a bottle of mineral water, and then the sales staff would tell you. That “0 to 3 year old genius” project, I still have a deep impression.
He took a large grid card, which contained all kinds of strange knowledge, such as the capital of Ecuador, the capital of Liberia, and which fruit Newton saw that made him think of universal gravitation.
A little girl, about two years old, very small, and milky, was standing on the stage. The promoter picked up the card, waved it on the front, and the little girl answered “Newton”, and the back was “apple”. See, the little girl memorized it. Although she couldn’t speak very fluently, she remembered the content behind it by heart.
Many parents below were very excited: your child is still learning to speak, and other people’s children can talk about Newton and apples. Then you think, this is a little genius, maybe he will be Newton in the future!
But when I was listening below, I was a little suspicious. Because I have been an investigative journalist for a long time, I am used to thinking in the opposite direction.
For example, is this knowledge useful? The capital of Ecuador, I ask you now, do you know it? Liberia is constantly at war and is particularly poor, why should we know its capital? That little girl probably won’t go to Liberia in her life.
What’s the difference between knowing the story of Newton and the apple at the age of two and at the age of eight? I myself learned this story in my English textbook in junior high school, and I didn’t feel any different. Why should children know it at a young age?
So I didn’t buy it, but I saw the parents next to me were very excited. A project of more than 30,000 yuan, and more than a dozen parents paid after a promotion.
I sighed at the time: it’s really easy to earn parents’ money. Sometimes, not earning their money makes me feel sorry for their deep affection for their children.
IQ tax is like this. Today I will talk about another IQ tax project for Chinese parents in the process of having children: umbilical cord blood preservation.
Generally speaking, in big cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, when you give birth, around the 20th week of pregnancy, you often encounter this kind of promotion when you go to the hospital.
This is the outpatient area of the obstetrics and gynecology department of a Grade III hospital in Beijing. As soon as you enter the door, you can see the umbilical cord blood consultation desk, brochures, and staff are promoting various information, attracting many prospective parents to consult and sign up.
My family gave birth in Beijing Peking University First Hospital back then. That hospital was relatively standardized, so I didn’t see this kind of promotion. But at that time, we were about to have a child, and we didn’t know much about parenting. We also attended public lectures.
Once, the lecture was about how to breastfeed and how to wrap the baby. After the lecture, a few people in white coats came on stage. The white coats made people feel like doctors, white angels. They began to introduce umbilical cord blood:
“Umbilical cord blood is good, it contains hematopoietic stem cells, which can cure hundreds of diseases. You are so precious to your child now. If your child gets leukemia in the future, you need to match and have a bone marrow transplant. What if you can’t match? It’s over, the child is hopeless. But if you preserve umbilical cord blood, you can live by transplanting it yourself, which is equivalent to buying an insurance policy for your child that only happens once in a lifetime.”
The expectant mothers in the audience were all frightened, and many were very interested. The promoter came over and asked if I was interested. I said, “I’m not interested.” Actually, what I was thinking was: how far is the truth, just get out of here.
Because I know that this so-called umbilical cord blood project is almost a scam.
The so-called umbilical cord blood is a little blood remaining in the placenta and umbilical cord after the baby is born and the umbilical cord is cut. In the past, these were treated as medical waste. Later, it was found that it contained hematopoietic stem cells, which can be used to treat some diseases.
So, can preserving umbilical cord blood save lives? There are two major problems here:
The first problem is that autologous umbilical cord blood is basically useless for treating leukemia. Because the main cause of leukemia is that hematopoietic stem cells have problems. Using stem cells with the same defects to treat it is equivalent to being ineffective.
The second problem is that the amount of umbilical cord blood is very limited. A portion of umbilical cord blood can provide hematopoietic stem cells, which is only enough for a child under 30 kilograms. When the child grows up, it is not enough at all.
Therefore, there are almost no cases of autologous umbilical cord blood treatment of leukemia internationally. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation have both clearly stated that they do not recommend that parents pay to preserve umbilical cord blood.
So, what is the truly useful way of umbilical cord blood? Public banks.
You donate to the public bank, and it is stored anonymously. Anyone who needs a successful match can use it. Others use yours, and you also have the opportunity to use others’. This logic is similar to blood donation.
Clinically, the vast majority of umbilical cord blood transplants are done using public banks.
However, self-storage banks are the ones that make money.
Think about it, a pair of parents spend 20,000 or 30,000 yuan to buy a so-called “only insurance”, sign a contract, pay the money, and then pay the management fee every year. But the utilization rate is almost zero.
According to the statistics of China’s umbilical cord blood banks, the utilization rate of public banks is over 96%, while the utilization rate of self-storage banks is less than 4%. But self-storage banks are the cash cows of capital.
China has approved a total of seven umbilical cord blood bank licenses, distributed in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Sichuan.
At first, umbilical cord blood banks were public welfare. But later, capital came in.
The largest is China Cord Blood Corporation, registered in the Cayman Islands, and also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It controls four blood banks in Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Shandong through mergers and acquisitions.
The company’s financial report disclosed that a portion of umbilical cord blood costs 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, and the cost is only 18%. The gross profit margin is 70% to 80%, and the net profit margin is 22%. The net profit in 2019 was more than 200 million yuan.
Think about it, what is this concept? Originally, it should have been a public welfare medical resource, but it has become a cash machine for capital.
If you look at its brochures, you will find that the wording is particularly frightening:
“The child only has one chance in their life!”
“If you miss it, it’s gone!”
“The future is unpredictable, only prepare for a rainy day!”
This is completely harvesting anxiety.
Many parents are frightened by this kind of propaganda, and they feel that this is the only insurance for their child’s life, and they have to buy it even if they grit their teeth.
But in fact, this is a “medical version of IQ tax”. Because there is almost no chance to use it, when the child really needs it, it is likely to be useless.
What is even more ironic is that public banks are truly valuable, but the construction of domestic public banks is not good. The reason is simple: public banks cannot charge fees at will, the profit model is poor, and they are not welcomed by capital. As a result, resources are tilted towards self-storage banks, leading to the fact that those who really need it cannot find suitable umbilical cord blood.
From a public welfare logic, self-storage banks not only cheat parents’ money, but also occupy social resources.
This scam eventually evolved into a typical Chinese-style commercial freak:
On the one hand, parents are anxious and willing to spend money to buy the “only chance”;
On the other hand, capital is pushing, turning medical resources that should have been public welfare into a tool for making money;
In the end, everyone feels at ease, and only those who really need it find that it is useless.
So, the correct choice is actually very simple: if parents really care about their child’s future, donate umbilical cord blood to the public bank.
This can not only help others, but also use the resources of the public bank if you need it in the future.
Umbilical cord blood preservation, self-storage is almost useless, is a standard IQ tax project.
What is truly meaningful is the public bank. It is not only a guarantee for the child, but also a guarantee for the whole society.
But unfortunately, under the promotion of capital, umbilical cord blood preservation has become another manipulated business.
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