While the country awaits federal approval of a promising new ALS drug, people in South Florida with the disease already are using it in clinical trials.
iStock/koto feja(NEW YORK) The death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell due to COVID-19 complications has sparked conversations about breakthrough deaths among vaccinated individuals. It would be inaccurate, however, to jump to any conclusions about vaccine effectiveness from a single breakthrough death such as Powell's, who was 84 years old, immunocompromised and being treated for multiple myeloma, a blood-borne cancer that "in and of itself can lead to compromised immunity," Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at the South Shore Medical Center in Massachusetts, told ABC News. In a statement, Dr. Paul Richardson, the director of clinical research at the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said myeloma patients are "not only vulnerable to infection but once infected, they are more prone to serious complications including vascular effects and profound immune dysfunction." Dr. Craig Devoe, chief of med