15 Patients Request Blood from Unvaccinated Donors

Patient Requests for Unvaccinated Blood Donations

@NewScientist reported that 15 patients or their caregivers requested directed blood donations from unvaccinated individuals specifically against COVID-19.

All 15 patients requested directed donations to receive blood from donors known to be unvaccinated against COVID-19. These 15 requests for directed donations resulted in treatment delays that put the patients at risk. In one case, a patient's haemoglobin level reached a critical level, which can cause organ injury and failure.

Another patient developed anaemia due to the delay.

Risks and Coordination Challenges Directed

Donation requires additional coordination, collection, processing, tracking, and timing compared to routine blood supply, according to Jacobs.

Direct donations have been linked to a higher infection risk because they are often one-off rather than from repeat donors known to blood banks. The vaccination status of anonymised donors is not recorded or conveyed by blood banks.

Policy Contexts and Historical Trends Directed

Donations are permitted in the UK and Australia only under exceptional circumstances such as rare blood types when suitable blood-bank donors are unavailable.

In the US, directed donations are allowed more broadly but discouraged, with policies varying between centers. Direct donations spiked during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s. Direct donations increased in prominence when mRNA COVID-19 vaccines became available.

Recent Developments and Statements

In 2025, a study confirmed that receiving blood donations from people vaccinated against COVID-19 is safe.

The Welsh Blood Service stated last year that people are asking about the vaccination status of blood donors. There was a rejected petition to the UK government to split blood donations by vaccination status. In Oklahoma, legislators have proposed mandating that patients have access to unvaccinated blood.

MRNA COVID-19 vaccines involve injecting part of SARS-CoV-2’s genetic code so cells produce one of its proteins, triggering the immune system to react and destroy those cells.