A Mesa man who has been undergoing dialysis three times a week for more than three years has been dropped from the Mayo Clinic’s Kidney Transplant Program for failing to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination.
Craig Shumway first learned of the Mayo Clinic’s new vaccination requirement in a Jan. 24 letter which was copied to his kidney specialist. The letter gave Shumway three weeks to obtain a full dosage of a COVID-19 vaccine, despite the fact two of the three approved vaccines require two shots given 30 days apart.
“Mayo Clinic is committed to transparency in communication about transplantation requirements and supporting you in your journey toward optimal health,” the unsigned letter stated. “If you have not been vaccinated by February 15, 2022, you will be made inactive on the waiting list and will not be eligible to receive a transplant.”
A transplant is something Shumway, 62, has been waiting for years after suffering kidney failure. He currently has dialysis treatment five hours a day, three days a week, and knows a transplant is the only option for improving his quality of life so he can be more active with his eight grandchildren.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), there were about 91,000 Americans waiting for a kidney transplant as of February 2021. However, receiving a COVID-19 vaccination worries Shumway due to his already immunocompromised condition.
“I am not anti-vax but I feel they should not make it mandatory,” Shumway told Arizona Daily Independent. “I am very conscious of my health, and am disappointed with how things are right now.”
Shumway has been a rollercoaster the last few weeks since receiving the Mayo Clinic letter. He was still considering his options when news came on Feb. 22 that a member of his wife’s family had been in a tragic accident and was dying.
The woman’s family wanted to donate one of her kidneys to Shumway, if possible.
But the offer was received the same day Shumway found another letter from Mayo Clinic in his mailbox – this one advising him that his status on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) transplant list had been downgraded to inactive.
This meant that Shumway would not have been eligible to receive the woman’s kidney even if deemed a match. (In the end the woman’s family was unable to donate her kidneys due to medical issues.)
The Mayo Clinic letters to Shumway do not explain why a COVID-19 vaccination is necessary now when the policy was not implemented last year when vaccines became available under FDA emergency use authorization. Nor do the letters cite any studies supporting the new requirement.
Medical professionals who have criticized the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies of providers like Mayo Clinic point to the fact that even healthy people have reported serious reactions to the vaccine. And that is a key concern for Shumway.
Transplant surgery will require Shumway’s already compromised immune system to deal with anti-rejection medications which are immunosuppressive. Getting vaccinated before that could further reduce his body’s ability to accept the transplanted kidney.
“I am still very unsure of the good a shot will do and am very much concerned with the reports I keep hearing regarding side effects and the shots efficacy,” Shumway said. “I believe it is wrong to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine due to the fact there is still so little known about it and that it is still in somewhat of an experimental stage.”
An April 2021 study published by Mayo Clinic in Florida called for studies to test vaccine efficacy in transplant patients, examine post-vaccine infection rates, and identify methods to boost the vaccine-related immune response in those patients. However, no such study has been published.
Shumway was recently told a medical exemption might be available, but that option was not mentioned in the letters he received. In the meantime, he is hopeful his medical condition does not worsen while he processes his options.
“It is all a bit overwhelming right now,” Shumway said.
Information on becoming an organ donor is available HERE