It’s safe to receive blood donated by someone who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, new Kaiser Permanente research confirms.
The study, published in March in Transfusion, included all adults hospitalized at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California who received a blood transfusion between June 2020 and March 2022.
It is the first study to link information about a blood donor’s COVID-19 vaccination status and the type of antibodies from the virus found in the blood with outcomes of the specific patients who received that person’s blood.
“Some patient advocacy groups have stated that it is not safe to receive a blood transfusion from blood donors who have been vaccinated against COVID-19,” said lead author Nareg Roubinian, MD, an adjunct investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and an intensive care doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. “We found no evidence that patients who had received blood from a donor who had been vaccinated were affected in a negative way by that blood. In fact, in many cases, the blood may have helped save their lives.”
The study included 7,773 patients who received at least one blood transfusion. The transfusions included both plasma and platelets. Plasma is the liquid part of blood. Platelets are the pieces of cells that help blood clot.
The researchers found the blood donor’s vaccination status had no effect on patient outcomes, such as blood clots or hospitalizations. It also didn’t matter what type of antibodies were found in the donor’s blood. This was true whether the patients received plasma or platelets.
Kaiser Permanente in Northern California receives blood products from the American Red Cross and Vitalant. Between June 2020 and March 2022, both were part of a national study that screened all blood donations for COVID-19 antibodies.
After COVID-19 vaccines began to be administered in January 2021, additional antibody tests were more routinely used to identify which donors had evidence of a prior infection. All donors were also asked if they had received a COVID-19 vaccine and, if so, when. The collection of this data at the time of the blood donation made this study possible.
“Our study supports the belief that the blood supply has been and is safe,” said Roubinian. “We hope our findings are reassuring to individuals who are worried about receiving a blood transfusion from someone who has been vaccinated against COVID-19.”
