Colin Powell’s death from Covid-19 complications demonstrates the importance of vaccinating everyone against the virus to protect cancer patients and other vulnerable people whose bodies may not mount an adequate immune response, even when they are fully vaccinated, doctors said Monday.
Powell, a former US secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died Monday, his family said.
Powell also had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body’s immune response, as well as Parkinson’s, Peggy Cifrino, Powell’s longtime chief of staff, confirmed to CNN.
“We know patients who are older and/or immunocompromised, whether it’s from cancer, medications or other underlying medical conditions, are more vulnerable to contracting COVID with serious complications and even death, even if they are fully vaccinated. This aligns with the CDC’s recommendations about boosters. The reassuring data is that in vaccinated persons over 65 years of age, the incidence of death from breakthrough cases still remains eight to 10 times less than unvaccinated persons with the same demographics,” Dr. Khalilah Gates, associate professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement.
“As unfortunate as his death is this morning, it shows the importance of vaccinations and the morbidity and mortality of being in one or more of those groups. It reinforces what we have been encouraging, continued vaccinations in those age groups and now boosters in those populations as well. For all of the Colin Powells amongst us, in our families, in our communities, we cannot afford to become lax,” Gates added.
“Like over 130,000 Americans today, Secretary Powell suffered from multiple myeloma, which is the second most common blood cancer after non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” added Dr. Paul Richardson, director of clinical research at the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Multiple myeloma disproportionately impacts Black patients, who are at twice the risk of developing the disease as compared to white Americans, and it’s expected that by 2034, nearly one in four multiple myeloma patients will be African American,” Richardson added.
He continued: “Covid-19 has been a considerable challenge in the multiple myeloma community. Patients are not only vulnerable to infection but once infected, they are more prone to serious complications including vascular effects and profound immune dysfunction. As the world continues to grapple with the pandemic and we prepare to meet the challenges of new variants, we urge individuals to get vaccinated to not only protect themselves and their loved ones, but to protect the health of others as well.”
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed reporting to this post.