ABSTRACT:
COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for society, and specifically the medical community.  While the pandemic continues to unfold, the transplant community has had to pivot in order to keep recipients, donors, and institutional transplant teams safe given the unique circumstances inherent to solid organ transplantation.
COVID-19 continues to devastate countries and medical systems around the world, at points leading to an inability to continue to provide safe patient care due to systems limitations.  As a result, some transplant centers have been forced to decrease their ability to offer transplantation in the midst of the pandemic.  This has resulted in an overall decrease in the number of transplants performed in the United States coupled with an increased number of inactive patients on the UNOS waiting list.1
Waitlist and transplant recipients have an increased risk for acquiring COVID-19. It is speculated that this patient population is particularly vulnerable and at risk for more severe disease given their immunocompromised status (post-transplant) and the high prevalence of comorbidities (waitlist and post-transplant).2 Given the uncertainty surrounding the risk of transplant patients contracting COVID-19 while on the waiting list or post-transplant, there is interest amongst the transplant community to characterize the patients trajectory should they become infected.