Professor of Public Health and Health Technology at the University of Technology, Dr Winston Davidson has suggested that late former US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s life may have actually been prolonged because of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Powell passed away last Monday from COVID-19 complications, his family said, despite being fully vaccinated against the respiratory illness. The retired four-star general was also being treated for multiple-myeloma – a type of blood cancer – when he contracted COVID-19 and later died at the age of 84. 

Powell’s death led to questions about the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines, but Davidson rejected the argument that it raises concerns about the jab’s reported effectiveness.

“If he was not vaccinated he would have died long before that and the reason for this is that he was suffering from a cancer known as multiple-myeloma. The death rate for this cancer is very high,” the renowned public health specialist told OBSERVER ONLINE. 

“The treatment of the condition is also dependent on the amount of antibodies that can be stimulated. He would be classified as an immunocompromised. This cancer literally blocked his capacity to build new antibodies, and so therefore, his condition was well served by having the vaccine, so the vaccine must have contributed even to the prolongation of his life,” Davidson continued. “The fact of the matter is that what he died from has nothing to do with the vaccine. What he died from was the cancer that he had for a number of years.”

Despite Powell’s death, Davidson added that “There is every justification for somebody with cancer to take the vaccine because it helps to prevent them from getting infections. Persons with cancer don’t only get COVID, they can get all kinds of infection – bacterial infection, fungal infection, viral infections.” 

He also expressed confidence that COVID-19 can be “eradicated” through strong take up of vaccines.

“In Jamaica, remember we vaccinated against polio, whooping cough, measles, tetanus, rubella, tuberculosis [and] smallpox, and remember 95 per cent of Jamaicans have been vaccinated. We have been taking vaccination since 1978 compulsory, so long as you went to school every Jamaican has been vaccinated and we do not have any of these diseases, they are eradicated,” Davidson noted.

Continuing, Davidson stated that the only way out of a pandemic of any kind is if 80 to 85 per cent of the population gets vaccinated or develop immunity after contracting the virus. 

To people who are still hesitant about taking the vaccine, Davidson said, “… we say to them the only way that you can prevent the disease from affecting you is by using a vaccine, that has been our experience for the past 44 years with all of those diseases.”