Key Takeaways
- Karl-Anthony Towns is urging people to consider COVID-19 vaccination after the virus killed his mother and seven other relatives, while his asthma also puts him at high risk.
- The Knicks star partnered with Sanofi to promote NUVAXOVID, a protein-based, non-mRNA vaccine whose updated formula targets the XFG variant.
- Towns said his pandemic grief still shapes him even as he celebrates an NBA championship and his marriage to Jordyn Woods.
Karl-Anthony Towns has plenty to celebrate after winning an NBA championship and marrying Jordyn Woods this year. But the New York Knicks star hasn't forgotten what COVID-19 took from his family—and he's using his experience to encourage others to consider vaccination.
Towns has partnered with Sanofi to raise awareness around NUVAXOVID, a protein-based, non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The issue is particularly personal for Towns, who has asthma and lost his mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, and seven other relatives to complications from COVID-19 during the pandemic.
“Obviously, my family history has not been kind with COVID,” Towns told Forbes. “But also by having asthma, it makes me a high risk candidate.”
Towns' mother, who was 58, died in April 2020 after contracting COVID-19 and spending weeks hospitalized. His father also became seriously ill but recovered. As the pandemic continued, Towns suffered repeated losses on his mother's side of the family.
“None of us expected to have such a devastating thing like this happen in our lifetimes,” Towns said. “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.”
Those losses have remained part of Towns' story long after the NBA returned to normal operations. He previously said he had “seen a lot of coffins” during a seven-month period in 2020 and later discussed experiencing survivor's guilt.
His grief recently surfaced in another unexpected place. While curating a Sotheby's Contemporary Curated auction with Woods, Towns selected George Condo's I Want My Brain Back, a 2020 work he said represented “how much I was losing myself” that year.
Six years later, Towns is approaching COVID-19 from a different position. He chose to receive the updated NUVAXOVID vaccine and said growing up with a mother who worked as a nurse helped fuel his interest in having a non-mRNA option available. The FDA approved the 2026-27 NUVAXOVID formula, which targets the XFG variant, in August.
The message comes at the end of a radically different year for Towns. He helped the Knicks capture their first NBA championship since 1973 before marrying Woods on Aug. 15.
