*Purpose: The transplant community faces ongoing challenges regarding the conduct of organ transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and patient treatment preferences during the pandemic require consideration.

*Methods: To determine waitlisted end-stage kidney disease patients willingness to accept an organ during the pandemic, we conducted an online survey of patients with available email addresses (n=1068); responses were received between May 29 and July 2, 2020.Patients were asked 12 questions, including two open-ended question to understand any concerns related to 1) quality and source of donor kidney and 2) impact of COVID-19 on kidney transplantation in general.

*Results: The majority of respondents indicated they would accept an organ during the pandemic and respondents almost universally indicated their comfort with transplant if their physician thought they should. Table 1 shows the questions and the aggregated responses; the response rate was 22% (n=232, with an average response per question of 76% (n=176). There were 113 responses to the open-ended questions that were classified into following emergent themes: “clinical concerns”, “COVID concerns”, “trust”, and “no concern” if the latter was explicitly stated, with a fifth category for “other” responses. The open response comments highlighted candidates’ concerns about the pandemic lengthening their wait time, contracting COVID-19 after transplantation, and balancing risk of infection versus remaining on the list (Table 2).

*Conclusions: These results indicate that kidney transplant candidates heavily support continued transplantation during the pandemic, suggesting that patients may perceive the need for transplantation to outweigh the risks associated with COVID-19. Balancing patient treatment preferences with clinical capacity (e.g., testing availability, personal protective equipment, and overall hospital beds) requires ongoing reassessment in the face of fluctuating incidence of COVID-19.

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