He was fully vaccinated. This makes me sad. No one is perfect but there was a lot I respected him for.
How sad. Even if one does not agree with all his past actions, it is hard to deny that he had a remarkable and distinguished career.
RIP
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I have great respect for Colin Powell. His journey of conscience played out in public, and he was honest about the evolution of his political leanings. I have experienced similar changes over the years, and I know how it has baffled my family. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to “disappoint” an entire political party.
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He was my dad’s age. I sent Dad a link to the news and told him that’s why he needs to continue to be careful. Vaccination isn’t a guarantee you won’t catch the virus. Ugh.
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I just read he’d been battling multiple myeloma for years. Likely made him more at risk.
We lost a great leader with strong morals and convictions.
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I remember this from a couple of years ago
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Normally, when the body detects a pathogen, the immune system activates new B cells, generated in the bone marrow, which mature into plasma cells and “learn” to make antibodies to that specific pathogen.
With multiple myeloma, a B cell for some reason grows into a cancerous plasma cell, which starts cloning itself over and over. The clones accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out the normal immune cells, which not only impairs antibody production but harms the entire immune system. Studies have shown that most multiple myeloma patients have an impaired response to the Covid vaccines.
Colin Powell would very likely have benefited from getting monoclonal antibodies every three months to protect him from Covid (since his immune system was unlikely to produce antibodies, despite the vaccine). If he didn’t get those preventative antibodies, I hope that they at least gave him monoclonals as soon as he tested positive.
My father knew Colin Powell through his career, and has great respect for him as a person who tried to do the right thing and recognized it when he failed. I’m thinking of his family today—his older daughter went to my alma mater.
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So sad.
He was older and immunocompromised. This is why we need the so called herd immunity - to stop the virus from being transmitted like a wildfire to protect folks like him.
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I didn’t always agree with General Powell, but I respected him. He had a lot of integrity. I was sad when I heard that he has passed and even sadder when I saw that he had Covid complications. Agree with @BunsenBurner - this is why we need herd immunity.
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It’s a sad morning. Like others, whether I agreed with him or not, I always respected him and always felt he had both the US and individuals’ best interests in mind.
RIP - my condolences to his family
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