DJ Ferguson didn’t get a COVID-19 shot. He was concerned about side effects and the rapid rate in which the vaccines were developed.
That decision cost him his place in line for a desperately needed heart transplant.
Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital dropped the 31-year-old from his next-up spot on the transplant list. The hospital’s policy: No COVID shot, no transplant.
A bill introduced by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and J.D. Vance (R-OH) would bar health care facilities that discriminate against patients based on their COVID-19 vaccination status from receiving federal funds.
The “COVID-19 Vaccination Non-Discrimination Act” also protects vulnerable patients’ right to make their own private health care decisions without being penalized for making those decisions, according to the bill’s authors.
“…[N}o funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by Federal law, including funds provided … shall be made available to a facility…that refuses to provide treatment to an individual based on the COVID-19 vaccination status of such individual,” the bill states.
Hospitals and transplant centers say the vaccination requirement is commonplace, helping to improve chances of survival for transplant patients.
On its website, Brigham and Women’s Hospital notes the health care system requires “several CDC-recommended vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, and lifestyle behaviors for transplant candidates to create both the best chance for a successful operation and to optimize the patient’s survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is drastically suppressed.”
Patients who don’t get the shot are no longer active on the waitlist, the hospital says.
“Research has shown that transplant recipients are at a much higher risk of dying from COVID-19 when compared to non-transplant patients. 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 Transplantation,” Brigham and Women’s website states.
But the lawmakers note that the American Medical Association (AMA) has urged physicians to refrain from denying care to patients based on vaccination status.
Patients are still being denied.
In December, 14-year-old Yulia Hicks, who had recovered from a prior COVID-19 infection and had natural immunity, was refused a kidney transplant at Duke University because her parents had decided not to have her vaccinated.
Yulia suffers from a rare degenerative kidney condition known as Senior Loken Syndrome, which requires a transplant, according to reports.
“I said, ‘So basically you’re telling us if she does not get the vaccine, then she’s not getting a transplant,'” Chrissy Hicks, Julia’s mother, told Fox & Friends Weekend. “And [the medical employee] said, ‘Yes, that is the one thing that is holding us up.’”
Co-sponsors of the “COVID-19 Vaccination Non-Discrimination Act” include Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND).
“No American should be denied access to critical care based on a personal medical decision, yet tragically, many hospitals and other medical facilities continue to discriminate against those unvaccinated for COVID-19,” said Paul, who also is a surgeon.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
