Some US patients waiting for organ transplants must get Covid vaccine or be removed from list

Transplant patients take immune-suppressing drugs and non-vaccinated recipients are more likely to die of infection

Health systems in Colorado and Washington are removing unvaccinated patients from organ transplant lists, given research that unprotected recipients are much more likely to die from Covid-19.

UCHealth in Colorado told a patient on the kidney transplant waiting list that she needed to get vaccinated in the next 30 days or she would be removed from the list. Leilani Lutali told 9News that she was the patient in question, and she hasn't been vaccinated yet because of her religious views.