No COVID Vax, No Transplant: Unfair or Good Medicine?

Silas Prescod Norman, MD, clinical associate professor of nephrology and internal medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; medical adviser, American Kidney Fund.

Dana J. Ufkes, Realtor, Seattle.

Arthur Caplan, PhD, director, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU Langone Medical Center and School of Medicine, New York City.

Anne Paschke, spokesperson, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines: “Special Considerations in Solid Organ Transplant, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant, and Cellular Immunotherapy Candidates, Donors, and Recipients.”

Joint statement, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, American Society of Transplantation, and International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation: “Joint Statement about COVID-19 Vaccination in Organ Transplant Candidates and Recipients.”

News release, Brigham and Women’s Hospital: “COVID-19 vaccination for transplant candidates.”

Health Resources & Services Administration: “Organ Donation Statistics.”

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS): “All-time records again set in 2021 for organ transplants, organ donation from deceased donors.”

Clinical Transplantation: “Excess mortality in solid organ transplant recipients hospitalized with COVID-19: A large-scale comparison of SOT recipients hospitalized with or without COVID-19.”

American Kidney Fund: “Preparing for Transplant.”

Twitter: @emeriticus, Jan. 25, 2022.

CBS News: “Hospital refusing heart transplant for man who won’t get vaccinated.”

The Charlotte Observer: “Man denied vital kidney transplant in North Carolina over not getting the COVID vaccine, he says.”