Anyone going near them must wear disinfected clothing and surgical masks and gloves. Thomas says that he's one person who appreciates all the safeguards. It's not like they just go to a farm, pick a pig and donate its organs. But critics, like Alix Fano, think xeno-transplantation will result in a deadly plague unleashed on human beings. She has studied the viral risks involved with using pig organs and calls it irresponsible public health policy.
Pigs are very good mixing vessels for viruses.
Researchers, however, counter that they have already learned which harmful organisms to avoid and that studies have shown no transference from pigs to humans. For Jody McCarthy of Rochester, it's a chance worth taking. McCarthy, who has primary pulmonary hypertension, is praying that she won't be one of the thousands of people who die each year waiting for a transplant. She's already been waiting for more than three years for a heart and lung. The chances of getting a disease from another animal is something I'm willing to risk at this point.