HOSPITAL SYSTEM REQUIRING VACCINATIONS FOR TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS IN ‘ALMOST ALL SITUATIONS’

A Colorado hospital system says COVID-19 vaccinations will now be required in “almost all situations” for transplant recipients and living donors.

“In almost all situations, transplant recipients and living donors at UCHealth are now required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in addition to meeting other health requirements and receiving additional vaccinations,” UCHealth said in a statement to The Hill.

The hospital system, based in Aurora, Colo., said that some transplant centers “already have this requirement in place, and others are making this change in policy now.”

Solid organ transplant patients don’t respond as well to the vaccine as healthy patients, so they were the first types of patients authorized for booster shots. Studies have placed the mortality rate for transplant patients who contract the virus at between 18 and 32 percent.

UCHealth’s rules for transplants were publicly blasted on Tuesday by Colorado state Rep. Tim Geitner (R), who called the policy discriminatory and “disgusting.”

But putting conditions on organ transplant patients is not new. Patients in transplant centers nationwide could be required to get other vaccinations, stop smoking or drinking, or ensure they will take the necessary anti-rejection drugs.