JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Outside of the rush to get appointments and wait in line for a COVID-19 vaccination, there are still some people with lingering questions.
Now that people are getting vaccinated, researchers are working to determine whether people who donate blood after getting a shot will help benefit those with weak immune systems.
“If the immune response from the vaccine is stronger than those who have actually had COVID, it certainly could be something really important for blood donation because that means we could actually have better protection in the blood that’s being donated from those vaccinated,” explained Chad Neilson, the director of infection prevention at UF Health.
Earlier in the pandemic, people who recovered from the virus donated plasma to help patients still fighting it.
On the website for OneBlood, a blood donation center, a message states that people who get the vaccine as part of a study are not eligible to donate plasma but may be eligible to be blood donors.
“We know there’s nothing really in this vaccine that should cause issues with immunocompromised or suppressed individuals,” Neilson said. “There is no live virus in this vaccine. There is no dead virus in this vaccine. This vaccine isn’t going to harm them and that ultimately, we really want them to get it because they’re at such a risk for severe complications if they do get COVID.”
Neilson recommends that anyone who donates blood to wait until they’ve received both doses of the vaccine for the best results.
He said both Pfizer and Moderna are starting to do clinical trials and will likely include those who are immunocompromised if the trial is big enough.