A House lawmaker wants the state to run its own blood bank so it can provide Oklahomans blood “untainted” by the COVID-19 vaccine.
But medical professionals said it’s not reasonable to require blood banks to accurately screen donors for vaccination status. Scientifically, there’s no way to tell the difference between the antibodies of people who have been sick with COVID and those who have been vaccinated against it, one doctor said.
Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, said he authored House Bill 3196 to “start conversations” about how to best provide people with unvaccinated blood products, especially in emergencies. His measure proposes that the State Department of Health open a blood bank that receives and stores blood from people who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Humphrey said he created this legislation after hearing a story about a child in state custody whose mother wanted any blood transfusions to be done with blood that had not received the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said he’s suspicious of the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and believes some of his family were adversely affected by it.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want it,” Humphrey said. “I don’t want it in me. I don’t want a transfusion. I don’t want it.”
He said he should have the ability to receive blood from donors who are unvaccinated and is open to private sector solutions to this problem if creating state statute isn’t the right path forward.
“If I’m in a wreck, if I need blood, I don’t want to wait till the last minute to know where we get COVID vaccine-free blood,” Humphrey said.
Dr. Steven Crawford, a family physician, a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma and president of the Oklahoma Alliance of Healthy Families, said the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and does not “taint” or “contaminate” someone’s DNA.
“There’s absolutely no way it can do that,” he said. “These are people who know nothing about science, who know nothing about medicine, that are trying to provide medical laws that make no (sense.)”
Crawford said the legislation would be detrimental to blood banks. There is no way for blood banks to verify whether a donor has received the COVID-19 vaccine beyond asking them. Even an antibody test wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the donor receiving the vaccine and having antibodies from having COVID-19, Crawford said.
“It would essentially shut down all blood banks because there’s no way they could comply,” he said. “So no one would get blood donations. They would get no blood for blood infusions, or blood product infusions, that save many, many lives.”
Blood donation and transfusions are regulated at the federal level to ensure safety, said Dr. John Armitage, president and CEO of Our Blood Institute, which operates the nation’s sixth largest blood center and works with over 240 hospitals and medical providers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
“There is no scientific evidence that a donor’s vaccination status affects the safety of donated blood,” he said.
Dr. Lance Watson, Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City’s chief medical officer, said it’s uncommon for patients to request vaccine-free blood.
He said federal guidelines allow for healthy people to donate blood regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status.
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