it makings a real difference. good day, jim. great to have that perspective. also joining us now, cnn medical analyst dr. jonathan reiner. what we learned from colin powell s family in their statement that he was fully vaccinated but had died from complications of covid-19. we ve now learned that he had multiple myeloma according to a source familiar with the matter. this is a cancer of the plasma cells. it can suppress your immune system. it s important to put this in context. right. multiple myeloma is a disease that itself suppresses the immune system but it s also important to understand that the treatment for multiple myeloma, which patients often take every day, itself can suppress the immune system. so general powell respected our most vulnerable population in this country. he was over the age of 80. he had cancer, and a treatment
mentioned persons with this rare albeit blood cancer are less likely to mount an appropriate immune response to vaccinations. their plasma cells responsible for creating antibodies are impacted by this type of cancer. and so your message be for people who say well, see, he got vaccinated and it didn t help him. isn t it the case getting the vaccine was the best chance he had of fighting covid but as you said, his body was not as able to respond to the vaccine the way that somebody who didn t have multiple myoloma would? anybody using this as fighting getting the vaccine has absolutely no understanding of the science of sense of loss the nation already endured. if we want to protect ourselves, other than a multi layer strategy is getting vaccinated
he was 84 years old. this, if anything, reaffirms the need for people to get vaccinated to protect people like general powell. when we talk about herd immunity, just sort of philosophically it means enough people get vaccinated that you protect the most vulnerable among us. people who can t get vaccinated or are vulnerable because of age, because of talking about his multiple myeloma which is a difficult cancer when it comes to immunity. this is cancer of the very cells that produce the antibodies, right? so it s the plasma cells that produce the antibodies. we also know we can put it up that about 45% of people who get vaccinated only have about an have an adequate response to the vaccine. 22% have a partial response. and 33% have no response. so we don t know where he fell in there but that was also that s why it s been suggested that people who have weakened
myeloma, it is a cancer of the very cells in the body that make antibody dis. something most people have heard of by now. you have the plasma cells that are affected and oftentimes you re getting medications to treat the cancer. that can suppress your immune systems as well. he is one of the most vulnerable. one thing i want to show you quickly, when we look at people who get vaccinated who have this, you find that about 45% of them only really have some sort of adequate response to the vaccine. so less than half, wolf. 33% have no response. 22% have a partial response. so he fell under that category of people with who were immunocompromised and would have been a candidate for a booster. and he was supposed to get a booster. was he too ill to get that scheduled booster shot over these past few weeks? yeah.
focus should not be on those who have already had covid. for example, a study from melbourne, australia, shows that people already infected will make antibodies for most of their lives. the study found two he thinks. one, that so-called memory control the blood looking for reinfection and two, bone marrow plasma cells produce antibodies for decades. studies from israel and the u.k. have similar findings. meanwhile, talk about missing the forest of the trees. there has been almost zero response to a rather astonishing revelation made by the head of our key health agency. here is the exchange. may 11th, capitol hill under questioning by senator richard burkes, 47 seconds and well worth it. watch. what percentage of the employees in your institute, your center, or your agency of your employees has been vaccinated?