Powell's death does not prove vaccines don't work: Scientists

NEW YORK • The death of former US secretary of state Colin Powell on Monday from complications due to Covid-19 has provided fuel for vaccine sceptics and opponents, who immediately seized on the news that Mr Powell had been vaccinated to stoke doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccines.

But Mr Powell's immune system had quite likely been weakened by multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells. Both the disease and the treatment can make people more susceptible to infections. His age, 84, may also have increased his risk, scientists said. Mr Powell received his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in February. He had also undergone treatment for early-stage Parkinson's disease.

Scientists emphasised that his death should not undermine confidence in Covid-19 vaccines, which drastically reduce the odds of severe disease and death. "Nothing is 100 per cent effective," said Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Centre at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "The point of getting a vaccine is that you want to know that the benefits clearly and definitively outweigh the risks. And we know that for this vaccine."

The vaccines are highly effective, even against the more contagious Delta variant. People who are fully vaccinated are roughly one-tenth as likely to be hospitalised and even less likely to die from Covid-19 as those who are unvaccinated, according to a recent study from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

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