An increasing number of patients are requesting “unvaccinated” blood for transfusions, which can delay care and pose risks to patients’ health, experts warn.
There is no evidence that unvaccinated blood presents any safety benefit, according to a new study published in the journal Transfusion.
There is currently no process for checking whether donated blood comes from vaccinated or unvaccinated donors, experts say.
Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which conducted the research, received 15 requests for unvaccinated blood between Jan. 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025. The median age of patients was 17 years old and more than half were children, the university reported.
Thirteen of the patients received blood donated specifically for them by family members, which is known as “direct donation.” This can be risky, because most direct donors are giving blood for the first time, and their donations are more likely to contain “potentially harmful pathogens,” the authors noted.
“Despite being framed as ‘safer,’ directed donations may paradoxically increase risk.”
Among the studied patient group, two became much sicker after refusing a standard blood transfusion.
One patient developed anemia, a condition where the body lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen. The other developed hemodynamic shock, a serious condition in which there is insufficient blood flow and oxygen to the body’s tissues, potentially leading to organ failure.
Requests for unvaccinated blood spiked after the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, posing a “recurring challenge for transfusion services and clinicians,” the researchers stated.
“These requests were associated with care delays, escalation and inefficiencies,” they indicated.
The researchers recommend that health systems create standardized policies to handle these types of requests.
“Regulatory and professional organizations have opposed these non-evidence-based policies, emphasizing that blood centers do not record or convey donor COVID-19 vaccination status and that evidence demonstrates transfusion from vaccinated donors poses no unique risk.”
The Vanderbilt study had some limitations, the researchers noted. It looked at a few cases and only included situations where special blood donations made it to the blood bank, so it doesn’t show how often people made this request overall.
It also didn’t include cases where concerns were resolved through conversations with doctors or ethics teams, the team noted.
As this was an observational study and not a controlled experiment, it only showed an association and could not prove that refusing standard blood directly caused any specific patient outcomes.
Several states have introduced proposals aimed at allowing patients to receive blood specifically from donors who have not received COVID-19 vaccines.
In Oklahoma, one such proposal called for the creation of a state-run blood bank dedicated to collecting and distributing blood from unvaccinated donors. Despite these efforts, none of the measures have been enacted into law.
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, was not involved in the research, but said these types of requests are “part of an ongoing fear culture.”
“It is also very difficult to test for, because the antibodies may be positive from COVID itself as well as the vaccine, and it can be difficult to tell the difference,” he told Fox News Digital.
The notion that receiving blood from someone who had the vaccine would be harmful is not based on any scientific studies, the doctor reiterated.
“If people want to group up to get blood from other unvaccinated people, I respect that choice, though it will be expensive and will limit options,” Siegel added.
Diane Calmus, vice president of government affairs for America’s Blood Centers in Washington, D.C., said that requests for direct donations are “exceedingly rare” – representing about 0.06% of the U.S. blood supply.
“Requests for unvaccinated blood are something we’ve seen wax and wane since the introduction of the COVID vaccine,” Calmus, who also was not involved in the Vanderbilt study, told Fox News Digital. “The challenge is that there’s no way to tell whether someone’s blood has been vaccinated – there’s no test that exists.”
Any situation where someone requires a blood transfusion is most likely a “very scary time,” she noted.
“Family members want to be cautious, and this is why it’s so important that people talk to a transfusion medicine-trained doctor,” the expert advised. “These are physicians who have a specialty in blood transfusions … and who can answer those questions that any individual will have.”
Calmus pointed out that it takes some time to facilitate a direct donation, and that there is a specific process in place.
“Blood has to be prescribed. You can’t just show up at the blood center and say, ‘I would like my sister to donate for me,’” she said. “There needs to be a prescription. It needs to go through the hospital … they need to make sure it is the right blood for the right patient.”
Calmus emphasized that the U.S. blood supply is “meticulously tracked,” and that there have been no indications of a lack of safety. She also stressed the ongoing need for blood donors.
“We need people – vaccinated or not vaccinated – to show up and donate blood, because it is the blood on the shelves that saves lives.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Vanderbilt researchers for comment.
