Anti-Vaxxers Are Being Denied Transplants and Rightly So

 

Some anti-vaxxers are (finally) facing significant consequences of their actions. To date the most they have faced—if anything—is the inconvenience of being unable to attend some event or go inside some establishment.

Now those who need transplants are being told they can't receive them unless they have been vaccinated. The American Society of Transplantation and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation released a joint statement saying that transplant patients, as well as their donors, families, and immediate contacts should be vaccinated.

The reason is that transplant patients must take immune-suppressing drugs to prevent rejection of their transplants. This makes them more susceptible to COVID-19. It also suppresses their immune response to a post-transplant vaccination, making a before-the-fact vaccination the best hope for prevention.

Needless to say, anti-vaxxers getting kicked off transplant lists take a dim view of this requirement. One woman in Colorado said: "I have too many questions that remain unanswered at this point. I feel like I’m being coerced into not being able to wait and see and that I have to take the shot if I want this lifesaving transplant."

She says she doesn't want to be vaccinated because of religious beliefs, because she thinks the vaccines were developed with fetal cells. However, she doesn't belong to a church, so we have to question how religious she really is. 

The religious excuse is also questionable given her "wait and see" comment. What is she waiting to see?  Will the vaccine somehow become not developed with fetal cells?

Anyway, I think this is a good policy. Transplants are enormously expensive. You and I help pay for them with our insurance premiums (and in some cases taxes). Donor organs are also a scarce resource.

Transplant patients who get COVID-19 are at much higher risk of dying. A spokesman for the hospital system that denied the Colorado woman a transplant said, "studies have found transplant patients who contract COVID-19 may have a mortality rate of 20% or higher."

Why should we commit scarce resources and pay for a transplant for someone who is giving flimsy excuses for not being vaccinated and is at high risk of dying if she gets infected? If she is like other people with these attitudes, she probably refuses masks and other mitigation measures too. 

It's her choice not to take the vaccine. But it's not her choice whether scarce resources and expensive procedures are given to people who are reckless with their health.

"Small anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists protest. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sheffield, UK" by Tim Dennell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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