“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, and grandfather and a great American,” the family wrote. Powell had been fully vaccinated, making him one of the rare “breakthrough” coronavirus cases. As the Kaiser Family Foundation reports, COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death, but a small share of fully vaccinated individuals do become infected, and some become hospitalized or have died. At this point, the family did not specify when he was vaccinated, if he had received a booster shot, or what his complications were. Powell, however, may have been more vulnerable to COVID-19 because he had multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell. According to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, patients with multiple myeloma are at a higher risk of getting sicker than the general population if they contract COVID-19 — this includes a higher risk of being hospitalized and a higher risk of dying from this infection. “We know that these vaccines — effective as they are — are not 100 percent effective, and there are people who can get serious breakthrough infections, as with Secretary Powell,” said William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor of preventive medicine and health policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. “These ‘breakthrough’ patients can be older and they often have underlying illnesses and be immunocompromised, as Powell was. Nonetheless, vaccination continues to be extraordinarily successful. Over 90 percent of people being admitted to hospitals today with COVID continue to be unvaccinated.” Powell had a distinguished military and political career. He served as the 65th U.S. secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 under President George W. Bush. During that time, Powell made a memorable speech before the United Nations Security Council in February arguing for the invasion of Iraq based on what turned out to be false evidence that the country had weapons of mass destruction. Powell served as a soldier for 35 years, rising up to become a four-star general and commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command in 1989. He became national security adviser under President Reagan, and from October 1989 to September 1993, Powell was the 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense. During this time, he oversaw 28 crises, including the invasion of Panama in 1989 and operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in the early 1990s. “Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell,” wrote former President George W. Bush in a statement. “He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam. Many presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience. He was such a favorite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom — twice.”
