The coronavirus pandemic has made all of us acutely aware of the fragility of health. People in fine shape one day have died in a matter of weeks or even days, and the burden of this disease falls especially hard on racial and ethnic minorities. Even patients who survive face long-term consequences from their illness. COVID-19 has caused kidney failure in some patients and lung failure in others, and some of these patients may require a transplant to recover fully from the virus and maintain their quality of life.

While we come from different professional backgrounds and political perspectives, we both know from first-hand experience the importance of encouraging organ donation and maximizing the organs available to patients. One of us directs one of the largest transplant centers in the country, which performs about 50 transplants in the average month and has seen too many patients die waiting for an organ. The other, a mother of a young daughter with cystic fibrosis, understands the anguish that patients with chronic diseases and their families face as their organs fail and they pray for solutions that will save their lives.