The willfully unvaccinated aren’t high up on the list of folks I would expect to knowingly do something for the good of others, but this is still handy to know.
Canadian Blood Services is encouraging people to donate blood, even if they haven’t been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Gina Leyva, the territory manager at Canadian Blood Services for Waterloo region, says her team has received a lot of questions from people asking whether they can donate blood if they are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated.
The short answer is “yes, they can,” said Leyva.
While Ontario now requires people to show proof of vaccination to access some non-essential businesses, such proof is not required to enter a blood donor clinic.
On its website, Canada Blood Services notes that the novel coronavirus is a respiratory virus.
Dr. Steven Drews, associate director of microbiology at Canadian Blood Services, said in a March 2020 statement that there is “absolutely no evidence of [blood] transfusion transmission for COVID-19, or any other coronavirus,” including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and other influenza viruses.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also says on its website that “respiratory viruses are not known to be transmitted by blood transfusion and there have been no reported cases of transfusion-transmitted coronavirus.”
If you’re able to donate blood, please do. Donation levels haven’t been great this year, according to the article. This is especially important now that elective surgeries are revving back up again.
