So sad. He was a good guy. The only guy that made me believe that there are politicians out there that do have integrity. It was a great loss to the United States and to the world that he never ran for the presidency. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/18/politics/colin-powell-dies/index.html Hope his death is not going to give ammunition to the anti-vaxxer's. The guy was battling Parkinson's disease and multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that made him immunocompromised that also made the vaccine to be less effective for him. Wonder if he should've received a booster shot. R.I.P. The cool cat!! Will miss you...
He never got the chance to protect himself with the booster. Also, if he was vaccinated with Moderna...I think it was only recently approved for a booster although I'm not sure. In addition, the ability to mix and match vaccines for boosters was only approved today. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/us/politics/fda-mix-and-match-boosters.html Talk about bad luck, Powell died of Covid complications on the same day that mix matching vaccines as a booster was approved. Thus, he never got a chance to receive a booster shot. wrbtrader
His system was severly compromised due to cancer and age..... sadly even if he got a bad flu it could have led to his death which is common in someone at his age battling cancer. Don't think the booster or anything would have changed much because it cannot overcome what cancer and its treatments do to your immune system.
Bottom Line: Vaccinated Breakthrough cases and deaths are still rare. However the elderly who are immunocompromised (e.g. Colin Powell) are the most likely to be impacted. Experts explain why breakthrough COVID cases, deaths are rare in wake of Colin Powell's death https://abc7chicago.com/colin-powell-breakthrough-covid-case-death-immunocompromised/11141596/ General Colin Powell, who was the first African-American Secretary of State, died due to complications of COVID-19 Monday, according to his family. The former Secretary of State had been fully vaccinated and had a form of blood cancer that can devastate the immune system. His case is one health officials designate as a breakthrough case because he was fully vaccinated. Powell was 84 years old and immunocompromised -- two big risk factors for breakthrough COVID cases. The former Secretary of State was fully vaccinated, yet he died from the virus. "We know vaccines are not going to be 100%, so we know there are going to be breakthrough infections, those breakthrough infections are uncommon," said Dr. Michael Angarone, a Northwestern Medicine infectious diseases professor. Infectious disease doctors said breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths are even more rare. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 0.032% of the breakthrough cases in Illinois result in hospitalizations and 0.01% in deaths. Of the state's 679 breakthrough deaths, 51% had underlying conditions and 87% were people over 65. In Powell's case, not only was he over 80, but had been diagnosed with a blood cancer called multiple myeloma, which has treatments that can also suppress the immune system. "His immune system may have been weakened, and he may not have responded well to the vaccine and that put him at risk for getting a breakthrough infection," Dr. Angarone explained. The risk is out there as long as the virus continues to circulate. Powell's death comes at a time where 82,000 people a day are getting the COVID in the U.S. and 1,500 are dying from it - most of which are unvaccinated. "If you are vaccinated, your chances of getting infected are eight times less, and chances of getting hospitalized or dying are 25 times less than if you are not vaccinated,' said Dr. Robert Citronberg, infectious disease medical director at Advocate Aurora Health. Infectious disease doctors said Powell's death should be a reminder that vaccines work best when everyone gets vaccinated. Had more people been protected, Powell's risk would have been much lower.
We don't know that in reference to that a bad flu could have led to his death although I do understand your point of using that reference. Yet, we do know that there are other immune compromise individuals in a worst situation than Powell (older and with multiple active cancers) that have in fact had the booster and survived a breakthrough infection after contact tracing revealed they were infected by someone in their inner circle that was not vaccinated. Old people die in their sleep...often listed in the autopsy as Natural Causes. Yet, we do know that is not how Powell died. Powell was a retired public servant of the government...most likely only his family will know the actual cause of his death...we will never know that other than the hospital / family stating he died from complications of Covid. Just the same, we will never know how Powell was infected with Covid regardless of his age and past/recent history with a severe underlying medical condition (cancer). wrbtrader
Thats exactly the other point I'm making. One of the best ways to protect those that can not be vaccinated or are vaccinated/immune compromise... We need to be fully vaccinated / wear a face mask when interacting with individuals like Powell as extra protection for those types of individuals. wrbtrader
Powell's job was to hold the President's hand while Schwarzkopf ran a war. Didn't pay much attention to him after that as he seemed to be just a hack when it came to politics.