Health
More patients demand ‘unvaccinated’ blood, doctors warn of growing health risks
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An increasing number of patients are requesting “unvaccinated” blood for transfusions, which can delay care and pose risks to patients’ health, experts warn.
There is no evidence that unvaccinated blood presents any safety benefit, according to a new study published in the journal Transfusion.
There is currently no process for checking whether donated blood comes from vaccinated or unvaccinated donors, experts say.
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Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which conducted the research, received 15 requests for unvaccinated blood between Jan. 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025. The median age of patients was 17 years old and more than half were children, the university reported.
An increasing number of patients are requesting “unvaccinated” blood for transfusions, which can delay care and pose risks to patients’ health, experts warn. (iStock)
Thirteen of the patients received blood donated specifically for them by family members, which is known as “direct donation.” This can be risky, because most direct donors are giving blood for the first time, and their donations are more likely to contain “potentially harmful pathogens,” the authors noted.
“Despite being framed as ‘safer,’ directed donations may paradoxically increase risk.”
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Among the studied patient group, two became much sicker after refusing a standard blood transfusion.
One patient developed anemia, a condition where the body lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen. The other developed hemodynamic shock, a serious condition in which there is insufficient blood flow and oxygen to the body’s tissues, potentially leading to organ failure.
“Despite being framed as ‘safer,’ directed donations may paradoxically increase risk.”
Requests for unvaccinated blood spiked after the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, posing a “recurring challenge for transfusion services and clinicians,” the researchers stated.
“These requests were associated with care delays, escalation and inefficiencies,” they indicated.
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The researchers recommend that health systems create standardized policies to handle these types of requests.
“Regulatory and professional organizations have opposed these non-evidence-based policies, emphasizing that blood centers do not record or convey donor COVID-19 vaccination status and that evidence demonstrates transfusion from vaccinated donors poses no unique risk.”
Requests for unvaccinated blood spiked after the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, posing a “recurring challenge for transfusion services and clinicians,” the researchers stated. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
The Vanderbilt study had some limitations, the researchers noted. It looked at a small number of cases and only included situations where special blood donations made it to the blood bank, so it doesn’t show how often people made this request overall.
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It also didn’t include cases where concerns were resolved through conversations with doctors or ethics teams, the team noted.
As this was an observational study and not a controlled experiment, it only showed an association and could not prove that refusing standard blood directly caused any specific patient outcomes.
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Several states have introduced proposals aimed at allowing patients to receive blood specifically from donors who have not received COVID-19 vaccines.
In Oklahoma, one such proposal called for the creation of a state-run blood bank dedicated to collecting and distributing blood from unvaccinated donors. Despite these efforts, none of the measures have been enacted into law.
The notion that receiving blood from someone who had the vaccine would be harmful is not based on any scientific studies, doctors say. (iStock)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, was not involved in the research, but said these types of requests are “part of an ongoing fear culture.”
“It is also very difficult to test for, because the antibodies may be positive from COVID itself as well as the vaccine, and it can be difficult to tell the difference,” he told Fox News Digital.
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The notion that receiving blood from someone who had the vaccine would be harmful is not based on any scientific studies, the doctor reiterated.
“If people want to group up to get blood from other unvaccinated people, I respect that choice, though it will be expensive and will limit options,” Siegel added.
“Requests for unvaccinated blood are something we’ve seen wax and wane since the introduction of the COVID vaccine,” an expert said. (iStock)
Diane Calmus, vice president of government affairs for America’s Blood Centers in Washington, D.C., said that requests for direct donations are “exceedingly rare” – representing about 0.06% of the U.S. blood supply.
“Requests for unvaccinated blood are something we’ve seen wax and wane since the introduction of the COVID vaccine,” Calmus, who also was not involved in the Vanderbilt study, told Fox News Digital. “The challenge is that there’s no way to tell whether someone’s blood has been vaccinated – there’s no test that exists.”
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Any situation where someone requires a blood transfusion is most likely a “very scary time,” she noted.
“Family members want to be cautious, and this is why it’s so important that people talk to a transfusion medicine-trained doctor,” the expert advised. “These are physicians who have a specialty in blood transfusions … and who can answer those questions that any individual will have.”
“Blood has to be prescribed. You can’t just show up at the blood center and say, ‘I would like my sister to donate for me,’” an expert said. (iStock)
Calmus pointed out that it takes some time to facilitate a direct donation, and that there is a specific process in place.
“Blood has to be prescribed. You can’t just show up at the blood center and say, ‘I would like my sister to donate for me,’” she said. “There needs to be a prescription. It needs to go through the hospital … they need to make sure it is the right blood for the right patient.”
“We need people – vaccinated or not vaccinated – to show up and donate blood, because it is the blood on the shelves that saves lives.”
Calmus emphasized that the U.S. blood supply is “meticulously tracked,” and that there have been no indications of a lack of safety. She also stressed the ongoing need for blood donors.
“We need people – vaccinated or not vaccinated – to show up and donate blood, because it is the blood on the shelves that saves lives.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Vanderbilt researchers for comment.
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Eliminating sugar from your diet may seem like the key to healthy eating, but research suggests it could have unintended effects on digestive health.
A study presented at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, suggests that a total lack of sucrose, or table sugar, may harm gut health and disrupt the body’s natural metabolism.
To explore how the total absence of dietary sugar impacts the body, researchers at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait City conducted a 16-week study on two groups of mice. Both groups were placed on a low-fat diet, but with one critical difference.
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One group consumed a low-fat diet that included a standard amount of sucrose, while the other group ate a low-fat diet that was completely sugar-free, according to the study’s press release.
Throughout the trial, the scientists monitored a wide variety of physiological factors, including the animals’ weight, glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, hormone levels, internal inflammation and the specific composition of their gut bacteria.
A total lack of dietary sugar can cause imbalances in the gut bacteria and lead to signs of fatty liver disease, even without any weight gain, researchers said. (iStock)
The study outcome suggested that completely removing sugar caused several unexpected health problems.
“Completely removing sucrose from a low-fat diet may unexpectedly disrupt gut health and promote inflammation and metabolic dysfunction,” Rasheed Ahmad, principal scientist and head of the Immunology & Microbiology Department at the Dasman Diabetes Institute, said in the release.
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Even though the mice on the sugar-free diet did not gain any extra weight compared to the control group, their internal health indicators deteriorated.
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The animals that lacked sucrose developed an imbalance in their gut microbes and increased inflammation within the intestines and liver.
They also showed signs of poor glucose regulation, insulin resistance and cellular changes associated with fatty liver disease, according to the research.
Future dietary guidelines may shift away from strict, absolute sugar bans and instead focus on overall gut health through balanced nutrition. (iStock)
“The findings suggest that complete removal of sucrose from a low-fat diet may negatively affect gut microbiota and metabolic health,” Ahmad concluded.
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While the risks of high-sugar diets are well-established, the researchers noted that little attention has been given to the effects of completely eliminating sugar from low-fat meals.
Scientists say these new findings highlight that dietary carbohydrates play a valuable role in supporting balance between the immune system and the gut microbiome.
Completely cutting sucrose from a low-fat diet can unexpectedly trigger gut inflammation and disrupt the metabolism, experts say. (iStock)
Because this research was conducted on mice over a relatively short 16-week period, further clinical trials are necessary to determine whether a completely sugar-free diet causes the same gut and liver inflammation in humans.
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Additionally, the study focused specifically on removing sucrose from low-fat meals, meaning the results might not apply to people eliminating sugar while following higher-fat or ketogenic eating plans, the researchers noted.
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The team believes that future dietary guidelines may shift away from strict, absolute sugar restrictions and instead place a greater emphasis on maintaining a diverse, healthy population of gut bacteria through balanced nutrition.
“In the long term, these findings could help improve strategies for preventing and managing metabolic disorders, fatty liver disease and chronic inflammatory conditions,” Ahmad said.
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A cure for cancer could be on the horizon in the next decade, according to experts.
During the WSJ Leadership Institute CEO Summit in London last week, Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO Joaquin Duato reflected on the pharmaceutical company’s projections on the future of cancer treatment.
In the next 10 years, the goal is to “try to eliminate cancer,” Duato shared.
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“That’s a high goal, and we are already making significant progress in certain cancers,” he said.
Duato used multiple myeloma as an example, noting that the life expectancy is currently 10 years, when it was previously “only single years.”
Joaquin Duato, chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson, speaks at the Punchbowl News Conference at Union Station on March 10, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
“We have treatments now that utilize your own immune system to attack the cancer,” he said at the summit. “For patients who were already going into hospice, so they didn’t have any other alternative, they are [at] more than five years, with a single administration, in remission. That [is] spectacular.”
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“When patients see that, they cannot believe that because they have been coming to the hospital every week [for] a decade, having multiple therapies.”
The goal is to “try to eliminate cancer” in the next 10 years, the pharmaceutical executive said. (iStock)
According to Duato, Johnson & Johnson is working to understand the biology of cancer growth and to formulate new technologies to address it.
“It’s realistic to believe that we are going to cure certain cancers, and some others we’re going to turn into chronic diseases,” he predicted.
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“Cancer is an important thing – I cannot think about anybody who has not been touched by cancer,” he went on. “But there are many other opportunities for us to actually advance science, to address very important social problems.”
Duato called out dementia as another “important problem” in need of a solution.
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He predicted that life expectancy, which has risen steadily over the past century, will continue to increase as longevity technologies and solutions advance, improving quality of life along the way.
Duato commented that J&J has been optimistic about the role artificial intelligence will play in the future of healthcare, calling it a “force multiplier.”
Biomarkers and AI can help with the earlier diagnosis of cancer, as well as a more advanced and personalized approach to surgery, a doctor noted. (iStock)
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel agreed with Duato’s outlook on the future of cancer care, noting that certain cancers will turn into chronic diseases while others will find outright cures.
“Advances [will be] based on the use of AI to help guide targeted treatments with expanding knowledge of cancer mutations and how to target them,” he predicted, speaking to Fox News Digital.
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Siegel added that biomarkers and AI can help with earlier diagnoses, as well as a more advanced and personalized approach to surgery.
J&J recently acquired Firefly Bio, a biotech firm that produces drugs that enter cancer cells to “target certain proteins that contain difficult to treat gene mutations,” the doctor added.
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