Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 May 12:18:100498.
doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100498. eCollection 2024 Jun.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in Canadian blood donors: Insight into donor representativeness of the general population

Sheila F O'Brien  1   2 , Mindy Goldman  3   4 , Behrouz Ehsani-Moghaddam  1   5 , Wenli Fan  1 , Lori Osmond  1 , Chantale Pambrun  6 , Steven J Drews  7   8
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in Canadian blood donors: Insight into donor representativeness of the general population

Sheila F O'Brien et al. Vaccine X. .

Abstract

Introduction: Blood donors world-wide were indispensable for monitoring anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies generated by infection and vaccination during the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, donor vaccination behaviours were under-studied. We aimed to compare the percentage of Canadian blood donors with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination antibodies with the percentage of the general population who received at least one dose of vaccine each month during initial vaccine deployment. We also report donor attitudes towards SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.

Methods: Canadian blood donors were randomly selected for SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing over 2021 (N = 165,240). The percentage of donor samples with vaccination antibodies were compared with the percentage of general population who received at least one dose of vaccine in each month of 2021 except February. A random sample of Canadian blood donors were surveyed about vaccination intent and attitudes (N = 4,558 participated, 30.4 % response rate).

Results: The percentages of the general population vaccinated and donors with vaccination antibodies increased from 1 % to over 90 %. General population vaccination was greater early in vaccine deployment than donors (p < 0.05), greater in donors than the general population by mid-2021 (p < 0.05) but they were similar by the end of 2021. While 52.6 % of surveyed donors had received vaccine in May 2021, a further 41.1 % intended to when eligible. Most donors thought COVID-19 infection could be serious (83.5 %) and that it was important to be vaccinated even if previously infected (77.8 %).

Conclusion: Early pandemic vaccine prioritization to at-risk individuals and healthcare workers gave rise to higher general population vaccination percentages, while donors had higher vaccine antibody percentages as vaccine was deployed to progressively younger age groups. Since blood donors may be more willing to receive vaccination, under pandemic conditions they may be valuable for monitoring vaccination-induced seroprevalence.

Keywords: Blood donors; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Chantale Pambrun reports financial support was provided by Government of Canada. Steven Drews reports equipment, drugs, or supplies was provided by Abbott Laboratories. Steven Drews reports a relationship with F Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd that includes.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of samples tested per month, 2021.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The concentration of vaccine(spike) antibodies in self-reported formula image vaccinated and unvaccinated blood donors in March 2021 formula image. Note: As it takes up to 2 weeks to develop antibodies, donors who were recently vaccinated may have low or no anti-S.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Percentage of general population aged 18–69 with at least one dose of vaccine formula image compared with the percentage of blood donors aged 18–69 with vaccine antibodies (Anti-S positive but anti-N negative) formula image.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Donor attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in May 2021. formula image Agreed formula image Undecided formula image Disagree.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. O’Brien S.F., Lieshout-Kirkke R.W., Lewin A., Erikstrup C., Steele W.J., Uzicanin S., et al. Research initiatives of blood services worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vox Sang. 2021;116:296–304. doi: 10.1111/vox.12995. - DOI - PubMed
    1. O’Brien S.F., Reedman C.N., Osiowy C., Bolotin S., Yi Q.L., Lourenco L., et al. Hepatitis B in blood donor screening data: An under-recognized resource for Canadian public health surveillance. Viruses. 2023;15:409. doi: 10.3390/v15020409. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vermeulen M., Swanevelder R., Van Zyl G., Lelie N., Murphy E.L. An assessment of hepatitis B virus prevalence in South African young blood donors born after the implementation of the infant hepatitis B virus immunization program: Implications for transfusion safety. Transfusion. 2021;61:2688–2700. doi: 10.1111/trf.16559. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. De Brier N., Koc Ö.M., De Buck E., Muylaert A., Nevens F., Vanbrabant M., et al. Hepatitis B virus prevalence in first-time blood donors in Flanders, Belgium: Impact of universal vaccination and migration. Transfusion. 2021;61:2125–2136. doi: 10.1111/trf.16431. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tang X., Allain J.P., Wang H., Rong X., Chen J., Huang K., et al. Incidence of hepatitis B virus infection in young Chinese blood donors born after mandatory implementation of neonatal hepatitis B vaccination nationwide. J Viral Hepat. 2018;25:1008–1016. doi: 10.1111/jvh.12901. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources