Why Colin Powell’s cancer likely reduced his protection from the Covid-19 vaccine

Why Colin Powell’s cancer likely reduced his protection from the Covid-19 vaccine

 

Gen. Colin Powell died Monday from complications of Covid-19, and experts say his death shows how important it is for more people to get vaccinated and stop the spread of the virus.    Powell was fully vaccinated, but a source close to the matter confirmed to CNN he had multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that would have affected his immune response to the vaccine, and made it difficult to fight the virus.    Peggy Cifrino, Powell's chief of staff, said Powell, 84, also had Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder.    Although the Covid-19 vaccines provide strong protection against severe disease and death in healthy people, multiple myeloma patients are among the immunocompromised groups who may not respond as well, studies have shown. One study published in Nature in July showed that only 45% of multiple myeloma patients developed an adequate response to the vaccine, while 22% had a partial response. One-third had no response.    "When you have multiple myeloma, the cancer cells fill up the bone marrow and crowd out all of the cells that are making the immune system, so your immune system becomes tremendously weakened," said Dr. Drew Pardoll, Abeloff professor of oncology, medicine, pathology and molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.    Powell's cancer would have made it difficult to fight off coronavirus infection, and treatment could have further weakened his immune system.    Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, said Monday that Powell "represented our most vulnerable population in this country."    "He was over the age of 80, he had cancer, and a treatment for his cancer made him vulnerable," Reiner told CNN's Jim Sciutto and Erica Hill. "So, when we try and convince young people who feel that they are low risk from the virus itself why they need to be vaccinated, it's to protect our treasures, our people like General Powell, our grandparents, because while, you know, a 25-year-old may do quite well with the infection, if they spread it to someone like General Powell, they will not. That is the imperative for vaccination in this country."