Vaccine efficacy, fighting misinformation after Colin Powell's death due to COVID complications

Matt O'Donnell Image
Monday, October 25, 2021
Clearing up COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, vaccine efficacy
Matt O' Donnell speaks with Paul Offit and Dr. Claire Wardle about COVID vaccine efficacy, risk factors and the spread of misinformation.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The death of Colin Powell due to COVID-19 complications caused a lot of confusion because he had been double-vaccinated.

The 84-year-old Powell died of complications related to COVID, despite being double vaccinated. That is fact.

But opportunists used that fact to promote their anti-vax stance, while failing to mention Powell had been treated for prostate cancer, and had suffered from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that weakens your immune system.

Powell, even while vaccinated, was about as vulnerable as they come to infection.

Matt O' Donnell talks about vaccine efficacy, comorbidities and risk factors plus the lies by omission of fact and misinformation that spread immediately after the news of Powell's death went public.

Guests:

Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the world's foremost experts on vaccines.

Dr. Claire Wardle, a lecturer at Penn's Annenberg School for Communication, who studies the impact of misinformation on society and how journalists can slow down conspiracies.