CLEVELAND — The pandemic may be over, but misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 are still being spread on the internet, particularly when it comes to vaccines.
We recently came across a post on Instagram by a person who goes by Rogan O'Handley, who has 2.6 million followers on the platform under the username @dc_draino. The post (pictured below) shows screenshots of a question about the coronavirus vaccine that potential blood donors have to answer before donating blood to the American Red Cross.
THE CLAIM
This person claimed in the caption of his post that his good friend told him that "if you received certain jabs in the last year, they won't draw your blood," apparently referring to COVID vaccines.
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY whether this claim is true when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines, we checked the following sources:
- The American Red Cross
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
THE RESEARCH
First, I personally took the potential blood donor survey, called the American Red Cross RapidPass Survey, to see if the question that was screenshotted and posted by the Instagram user popped up.
The question did indeed pop up as No. 79 in the survey, and it asked, "Have you EVER had a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine?" Then, below the question it says that, "If you answer 'YES' to the question, please call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) before coming in to donate to determine if this will affect your eligibility."
I called that number, and reached out to the American Red Cross via email, and a representative told me this:
"The question is asked to determine if the COVID vaccine they've received is FDA-approved in order to faithfully adhere to the FDA's eligibility guidelines. The donor will be asked which company manufactured the vaccine they received. As long as the donor gives the name of the manufacturer, the manufacturer is FDA-approved, and the donor is feeling well, then they are immediately eligible to donate. If they cannot remember the name of the vaccine manufacturer, they will be asked to wait two weeks."
To confirm this, we checked with the FDA, and their representative told us the exact same thing. The representative also pointed us to the page on the FDA website where this policy is posted publicly.
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that the claim that if you've received certain COVID-19 vaccines in the last year, they won't draw your blood at the American Red Cross, is false. The longest waiting period after a COVID-19 vaccine for anyone is 14 days, and that's only if your vaccine was not FDA approved (more information on approved vaccines can be found here).
Remember, regardless of which coronavirus vaccine you received, blood donors must be feeling well and have a normal temperature on the day they donate blood, and blood donors are very much in need right now.
Do you have something you'd like our team to VERIFY? Email your question or claim to verify@wkyc.com or text it to 216-344-3300.