'Somebody is killing us': Intermountain CEO has same cancer as Colin Powell, who died from COVID-19

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‘Somebody is killing us’: Intermountain CEO has same cancer as Colin Powell, who died from COVID-19

At-risk blood cancer patients like Marc Harrison rely on others to get vaccinated to build herd immunity.

By Erin Alberty | Oct. 19, 2021, 9:03 a.m. | Updated: 11:22 a.m.

Dr. Marc Harrison, like Colin Powell was, is fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

But, also like Powell, the Intermountain Healthcare CEO suffers from multiple myeloma — the blood cancer that likely left Powell vulnerable to COVID-19 before he died from the virus this week.

“For people with blood cancers — lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma — only about half of them respond to an mRNA vaccine,” Harrison said Monday, after Powell’s death. Powell, who served as a four-star Army general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State under George W. Bush, died Monday from the coronavirus.

While the overwhelming majority of Americans dying from COVID-19 right now are unvaccinated, the virus still is claiming victims from the 2% of people who are immunocompromised by other conditions — such as cancer or organ transplants — as well as by drugs that treat other illnesses, like inflammatory bowel disease, Harrison said.

“Somebody is giving them COVID. Somebody is killing us,” Harrison said. “The surest way to decrease that is for people to get their vaccinations.”

Among the immunocompromised, the vaccine may well be protective, especially with a booster shot, Harrison said. But only about half of patients with blood cancer develop antibodies in response to the vaccine, he said — and only one-third of transplant recipients do.

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