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

Sheila F O'Brien; Mindy Goldman; Behrouz Ehsani-Moghaddam; Wenli Fan; Lori Osmond; Chantale Pambrun; Steven J Drews

doi:10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100498

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

Vaccine X. 2024 May 12:18:100498. doi: 10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100498. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Authors

Sheila F O'Brien^{1

2}, Mindy Goldman^{3

4}, Behrouz Ehsani-Moghaddam^{1

5}, Wenli Fan¹, Lori Osmond¹, Chantale Pambrun⁶, Steven J Drews^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Epidemiology & Surveillance, Canadian Blood Services, 1800 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 4J5, Canada.
² School of Epidemiology & Public Health, University of Ottawa, 600 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 5Z3, Canada.
³ Donation and Policy Studies, Canadian Blood Services, 1800 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 4J5, Canada.
⁴ Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 600 Peter Morand Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 5Z3, Canada.
⁵ Centre for Studies in Primary Care, Department of Family Medicine, Queens University, 220 Bagot Street, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3G2, Canada.
⁶ Innovation & Portfolio Management, Medical Affairs & Innovation, Canadian Blood Services, 1800 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 4J5, Canada.
⁷ Microbiology, Canadian Blood Services, 8249-114 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R8, Canada.
⁸ Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, 118 Street & 86 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada.

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.