As more New York residents become eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, even as it continues to be in short supply, we asked Northwell Health about organ transplant patients.
Dr. Lew Teperman, director of organ transplantation at Northwell, had recorded this podcast about how recipients can fare with the vaccine. “If offered the vaccine, take it,” he said of organ recipients. He recommends recipients take a vaccine based on mRNA vaccines because there are no viruses involved in the vaccine. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use the mRNA technology.
He also answered questions about the donor pool and the possibillity of tranmission of the virus to organ transplant recipients. He also said he was advocating for living donors to get priority on the vaccine eligibility list.