Forbes
@forbes·2.1M subscribers·11.3K videos
COVID-19 Is Causing An Alarming Decline In Organ Transplants | Forbes
Posted
April 30, 2020
Views
1,880
Likes
35
Comments
3
Engagement
2.02%
April 30, 2020
1,880
35
3
2.02%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
3:49Now PlayingImpacts from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have rippled across all areas of the healthcare system, including organ transplants. On April 7th, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) released new data showing that transplants in the U.S. dropped sharply in early March of 2020, right around the time when social distancing measures came into effect in much of the country. The last week in March saw only half the number of transplants as the first week of the month.
"Everyone has put their programs on hold pretty much," says Helen Irving, CEO of LiveOnNY, an organ procurement organization that covers New York City and surrounding counties.
Procedures involving donations from living people, such as kidney transplants, have seen the most dramatic decrease. Both donors and patients are reluctant to go into the hospital, where many cases of COVID-19 have originated. All transplant patients are immunosuppressed to prevent organ rejection, which is a risk factor for more serious coronavirus symptoms.
But kidney transplants aren’t the only operations being impacted. "Pretty much it's shut down," says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU Langone Health, of the nation’s organ transplant network. "A lot of people may die on the waiting list, more than usual."
Read the full profile on Forbes
Subscribe to FORBES
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters
Forbes on Facebook
Forbes Video on Twitter
Forbes Video on Instagram
More From Forbes
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
