“Expert” has become a dirty word these past few years but not when used to describe our own Dr K. who added much detail and insight to my “surgeon’s answer” regarding baby Will’s quandry. I reprint his most excellent addition to our knowledge of blood transfusion in these days of COVID-19 “vaccination”. I think my reasoning was correct but we will leave that to ourexpert to judge. Thank you Dr. K for taking the time to help us understand this sticky topic about which many of us have been curious.
Dr. K writes,
I am a long-time blood bank director. Directed donations are discouraged primarily because it is almost impossible to accommodate a long list of people coming in and saying "I only want blood from these people". It is already hard enough to make this all work. (And as you can imagine, the requests quickly go from “no mRNA vax blood” to “No vax of any sort blood” or “No black blood” or “No blood from anyone who drinks” ad infinitum. We have seen it all.) Reports are that the parents had recruited a large pool of potential donors. While they all claim to not have been spikeshotted, we assume at least 10% of the responses we get to questions are not correct. And many of those patients will have had covid (which makes the same spikes) and, for that matter, may have it at the time they are donating -- many cases remain subclinical Matching is pretty arbitrary: Units are ABO/Rh typed and then pretty randomly selected (usually by expiration date) to be crossmatched. A major side crossmatch is all that is generally done which makes sure that there are no antibodies in the baby's blood that will clot the incoming transfusion. (A minor side crossmatch, seldom done but considered when volumes are equally small, checks the reverse.) Most matches get through first time. If not, one moves on to another type/rH compatible unit. There is a further layer to put on this. Red cells (which is all they really need to transfuse) are just sacks of hemoglobin with a membrane. They do not contain organelles (like a nucleus) and I expect would not contain (internally) spike protein either...no place internal to attach since the red cell has just a simple unit membrane. But the red cell DOES have CD147 receptors on the membrane (https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1108300), so spike proteins could stick to it. As you noted, one would by default use packed, washed RBCs. Whole blood does not keep well and is seldom banked except for special needs. Most of the adhered spikes (if any) would have been washed off. And this, of course, beggars the question as to whether someone vaccinated, let us say one year ago, or someone who had covid six months ago would have any spike protein floating around in any case. Most would think not. (More on this below.) Of course, one could test the units for spike protein if that were of merit. We test for many other things (among them: HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Chaga's disease, HTLV, West Nile, Zika, Babesiosis, sometimes others.) It would not be that difficult to test for spike protein as well. That, too, would have helped everyone feel better. I believe the worry of the NZ health system is that everyone will then want every unit tested. If there were an indication that transfusing units were spreading disease it would already be tested; that is how all those other diseases got onto the testing list. I am not aware of any published report of covid being transmitted through transfusion or of post-transfusion spike protein damage. Even though those are surely possible, most blood transfusions are pretty carefully monitored and such issues are usually exposed early. That is doubly true for something like covid where virtually everyone has already had it; if there were to be serious consequences, they likely would have already been detected. One has to assume that most transfusions given in the last year have come from covid infected (and/or vaxxed) patients. The spikes are the same. One can anguish over some of the other spikeshot components (lipid nanoparticles, etc.) but these are unlikely to have a long lifespan or to survive washing. As an aside, people underestimate how much “stuff” there is in EVERY transfusion – even with washed, packed cells, there is likely to be detritus in tiny amounts from many previous infections the donor has had, whether or not they even knew about many of such infections. Luckily, recipients, even tiny babies, are quite good at dealing with such – after all, it is the whole point of the immune system. And it is why we screen for the things we know are an issue. But many transfusion patients do run fevers, etc. as they process the “non-RBC” components of the transfusion that were not screened out. This virtually never results in significant morbidity, however. Most patients do OK with their transfusions -- usually if you are being transfused you have far larger issues with which to deal and having tissue oxygenation is more important than the other potential transfusion issues. (This goes without saying if you are going on the pump.) We monitor each transfusion to see if we are seeing effects from covid and, for that matter, anything else. As readers of various stacks know, I am a long-term opponent of spikeshotting most patients, but that does not necessarily extend to assuming that such blood is contaminated in some way. Another approach: The beauty of RBCs is they last only 120 days which means the average lifespan of an RBC in a sample is only 60 days. It would be relatively easy to use the general pool but to screen (we screen for endless things) patients who were last spikeshotted six or 12 months before and who have had no known covid in the past six months. As long as giving packed, washed red cells, the chance of spike contamination would be virtually zero. This is likely unnecessary but could be covered under precautionary principles for those concerned.
Once again, thank-you Dr. K for such great insights.
I was a US service member in Germany 1987-90. Years later while working at a plasma center I learned of my permanent disqualification from any kind of donation due to my possible exposure to Jakob-Kreutzfield disease (mad cow /BSE/prions).
Is this likely to ever be updated, or is our knowledge so limited and the risk too high? Need I be eternally vigilant against my brain turning into a sponge?
To reiterate, as on your last post, a hugely kind, insightful Comment.
Many thanks!