Mr. Speaker, the National Transplant Consensus Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccine was written by the Canadian Society of Transplantation’s transplant infections disease group, reviewed by its ethics committee and endorsed by the board of directors. The Government of Canada was not involved in these guidelines.
The published document National Transplant Consensus Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccine lays out the reasons that patients should be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to organ transplantation. Many transplant programs had already adopted this policy in principle. By way of the guidelines, the CST formalized the policy, while acknowledging that there may be cases where exemptions should be considered.
These guidelines do not recommend that transplant programs deny organ transplants to individuals who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
In Canada, health care is provincially administered, which may contribute to the degree of heterogeneity in ways the guidelines have been applied.