Karl-Anthony Towns Who Lost Mom To COVID-19 Talks Of Value Of Vaccine

Towns Lost His Mother And Others On His Mother’s Side To COVID-19

That’s because 2020 was when that thing called the COVID-19 pandemic started, and April 2026 was when Towns unfortunately lost his mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns—who was only 58 at the time—to complications from COVID-19. In fact, Towns eventually lost multiple family members on his mother’s side to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. “None of us expected to have such a devastating thing like this happen in our lifetimes,” Towns recently told me. “And, for me, obviously, it was a trying time to try to figure out what COVID-19 was and how do we protect against it.”

It may be easy to forget in hindsight what really happened in 2020 with people now back to mingling and being immersed in many of their pre-2020 distractions like listening to social media influencers tell them to do stuff like eat dirt and not shower before dates, As Towns recalled, “Obviously the whole world was in a state of chaos, not understanding what we were seeing.” There was certainly a lot of confusion as to what to do in the U.S. The virus was left to spread pretty much unchecked in the U.S. through much of the first two-plus months of 2020 before any action was taken to try to put a brake on things and regroup. Then aside from waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines to arrive, there was no real long-term strategy from the U.S. government on how to deal with the pandemic.

Towns added, “At the end, my mom and my dad both got COVID-19. Both didn’t do too well. But my dad found himself getting better, and my mom just didn’t. And my mom’s side of the family for some reason.”

COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Have Plummeted Even Though COVID Remains A Threat

Fast forward to 2026. The U.S. is no longer in a pandemic state. But the SARS-CoV-2 still continues to circulate. A surge seemed to occur, for example, in the late Summer. I said “seemed to” because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still hasn’t really established and maintained an accurate and up-to-date COVID-19 case surveillance system.

And even though the risks of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 aren’t nearly as high anymore as they were in 2020, the virus can still cause such problems. Even if you are completely healthy, you can still suffer serious complications from COVID-19, and the chances rise significantly if you have a weaker immune system due to age or other medical conditions.

Plus, getting long COVID is always a possibility after a SARS-CoV-2 infection. And as I and Hannah Dimmick, PhD, described in the The Conversation, long COVID can be a serious ongoing health and economic burden. In fact, our study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases estimated that long COVID continues to cost the U.S. billions and billions of dollars.

Yet, according to the CDC, as of February 22, 2026, only 17.5 percent of American adults reported having received the 2025─26 COVID-19 vaccines. That’s noteworthy since protection offered by the vaccines begins to wane four-to-six months after vaccination, meaning that you need to get vaccinated at least once a year to remain effectively protected. And the CDC has not provided updated COVID-19 vaccination coverage stats since.

Towns Is Encouraging Vaccination To Protect Against COVID-19

Towns recognized the continuing threat of COVID-19. “Obviously, my family history has not been kind with COVID.” He added, “But also by having asthma, it makes me a high risk candidate.” Chances are you’ve heard about the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines being available. Updated versions of both just came out last month.

However, you may not have heard about the NUVAXOVID vaccine that was brought to market by Novavax as I covered in Forbes in 2022 and is now marketed by Sanofi in the U.S., European Union and United Kingdom. Takeda Pharmaceutical markets NUVAXOVID in Japan This vaccine doesn’t use the new mRNA technology and instead utilizes recombinant protein technology that has been long used for other vaccines such as hepatitis B ones. Towns has partnered with Sanofi to raise more awareness about the availability of NUVAXOVID. He mentioned how “the geek in him” and that the fact that he “grew up with my mom being a nurse and working in the medical field” have made him happy to see Nuvoxavid as a “non-MRNA COVID-19 vaccine” option.

It has been a good Spring and Summer for Towns. “It was exciting because getting married is probably the highlight of my summer. The Larry O’Brien trophy came second.” Now, Towns and the Knicks have to get ready for the new season— undoubtedly hoping to take the rest of the NBA to town and defend their NBA Championship.

The change of seasons also means that it’s time for you to think about getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine. After all, it’s a good idea to defend your body against the surge of COVID-19 that has occurred every November since 2020.