Covid vaccine slowly becoming part of the organ transplantation criteria, two dozen unvaccinated MUSC patients face list removal

Charleston, South Carolina – The Covid-19 vaccination status is slowly becoming organ transplantation criteria as multiple cases of patients removed from the transplant lists nationwide have been reported in the last couple of weeks.

According to multiple reports, tens of MUSC patients might be also removed off of the organ transplant list this week.

MUSC officials said that currently there are a total of 41 patients on the UNOS waitlist that are not meeting the Covid-19 vaccine requirement.

18 of them are working to complete the requirement, but the remaining 23 have indicated that they are not going to get vaccinated.

Since the 23 of them said they are not going to get the Covid vaccine anytime soon, MUSC on Wednesday said it’s ‘very’ likely those patients are facing removal from the list.

This is part of the MUSC announcement:

“… MUSC Health’s transplant team wants to keep patients safe and achieve the best possible outcome from organ transplant. Patients awaiting or undergoing evaluation for organ transplant at MUSC Heath are now required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, with very few medical exceptions. We are communicating this requirement to all current/new/future patients who are involved in the transplant evaluation process. MUSC Health is part of a growing number of transplant centers who are making this same requirement, due to the evidence of improving patient outcomes post-transplant for those who are vaccinated. Before declining transplant candidacy, every effort is being made to understand the rationale behind individual vaccine refusal and to reduce barriers or misinformation related to vaccine acceptance…”

MUSC added they are mandating patients “many vaccinations and wellness exams” and Covid-19 vaccine is just one of the many other requirements. According to MUSC, they have this mandate in place to ensure that the whole transplantation process will work as expected.

Currently, MUSC has 1,438 patients on the UNOS waitlist. 1,397 of them have met the COVID vaccine requirement.