Seek First to Understand....Before Putting Your Foot in Your Mouth

Schifanelli Knows Not Of What She Speaks

A number of Republican candidates or other Republican/Libertarian folks have made comments regarding the requirement for a transplant patient to receive all vaccinations, including the Covid vaccine, prior to being placed on the transplant list.  

Gordana Schifanelli tweets:  “Democrats are becoming the 21 fascism party”, with a retweet of an article entitled:  Heartless:  A Young Father Removed From Transplant List Over Vaccination Status.   

Gordana Schifanelli,Esq. @GSchifanelli

Democrats are becoming the 21 fascism party

Gordana “forgets” to provide the reference.  But I found it under Fox News. 

A “Health Policy Expert” steals from Schifanelli’s post above.  He  personally states:  This violates just about every ethics rule there is.  Still think that Government-run health care. . .etc, etc.”

Schifanelli could have done a 10 minute google search in order to understand.  Maybe she could have stopped her projecting “fascism” onto organizations that have fully studied the ethics of this healthcare need.   The unnamed “expert” should have known better if he claims to be an expert in public health.  

The facts:

• The vaccination requirement meets all ethical guidelines.

• Around 100,000 people are currently on the waiting list for an organ transplant.  One-half of these 100,000 will not receive their transplant within 5 years due to the shortage of available organs.

• Therefore, transplant centers follow the ethical guidelines created by a variety of organizations and government agencies with an interest in fair allocation of organs.

• “This guidance is in alignment with recommendations from the American Society of Transplantation, American Society of Transplant Surgeons and International Society for Heart and Lung Transplants.”  

• Covid vaccine is required as are a variety of other vaccines.  This also includes the requirement for household members of the transplant patient to be vaccinated. 

• “We follow this guidance in order to create both the best chance for a successful operation and also the patient’s disease-free survival, given that their immune system is suppressed after transplant.”

This is simple.  A transplant patient needs to display certain behaviors in order to be given the transplant.  Those behaviors all have to do with the safety of the patient for the long term.  Transplants are expensive and a very difficult procedure for the patient to go through.  Transplant patients will be on immune suppressives for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection of their organ.  

Further, it simply is not appropriate for a transplant patient to refuse vaccinations that will save his life.  It is very probable that this transplanted patient would lose his life, not to mention the lost opportunity for another patient to receive this organ.    

A variety of sources for further explanation:

• https://www.brighamandwomens.org/about-bwh/newsroom/transplant-candidate-vaccination

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653143/pdf/AJT-9999-0.pdf

"The ethical framework that has evolved over the decades indicates that physicians have an obligation to both the patient in need of a transplant and the donor. As stewards of the gift the donor is giving to the recipient, the transplant team must give that gift a reasonable chance to flourish," said Dr. Kuczewski: https://www.loyolamedicine.org/about-us/news/covid-vaccine-requirements-lung-transplant-patients

We recommend that vaccination for COVID-19 should be a requirement for waitlist activation for solid organ transplant (SOT). We also recommend that such vaccination be required of the primary member of the in-home support team. We argue that these requirements are consistent with current standard practices that draw on a well-established ethical framework. As a result, these recommendations should be easily received and are only controversial owing to the inflamed and politicized state of public discourse: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053249821025390

This is yet one more instance where Schifanelli and her expert should spend 10 minutes googling the subject to prevent posting a “fascist” statement projected onto others, or to show one’s lack of understanding in his chosen field of study.  

My advice once again for Schifanelli:  Seek first to understand. . . before putting your foot in your mouth.