7 Things We Learned in an Interview with Surgeon General Jerome Adams

Surgeon General Jerome Adams called into Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily on Monday for an interview with host Alex Marlow.

Here are seven important topics of discussion from the interview:

1. Masks: Masks don’t prevent you from getting coronavirus but the most important part is to stop people from spreading it. The task force learned that 25–50 percent of Americans are spreading the virus before they have symptoms or ever have symptoms. Save medical masks for the healthcare workers; just use a cloth or make your own mask to cover your face. Don’t touch your mask, readjust your mask, or set it down where the virus can infect anything. Adams also released a video showing Americans how to make their own masks. Watch below:

2. Herd immunity: It takes two to three or more seasons to build herd immunity to a virus like the coronavirus, Adams said. That’s why federal medical officials are ordering social mitigation until therapeutics and vaccines are developed.
3. Recurring infections: Can people get coronavirus again after they’ve recovered? Adams said that less than one percent of people have had it recur in the current season. This is why antibody testing is critical for Americans returning to work.
4. Data vs. Models: The Coronavirus Task Force is now working with real-time data about the country, Adams said, instead of the predictive models that were criticized for being overblown and exaggerated.
5. Black and Hispanic Americans: Black and Hispanic Americans are more affected by the virus, Adams said, because fewer in those communities have jobs allowing them to telework, and many live in close quarters and multigenerational housing. These communities need to continue practicing the social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines.
6. Reopening the country: Reopening America will be gradual, not just flipping everything on all at once like a light switch, Adams said. The task force will go through the data and work with local officials to reopen the country.
7. The struggle to communicate with anti-Trump media: Adams admitted that it was a struggle to communicate with some in the establishment media who are frequently anti-Trump. “One of the things I’m realizing, when I’m standing in the White House next to the president of the United States, when I say things, they’re questioned and people question my authenticity,” he said after journalist Yamiche Alcindor demanded that he correct terms of endearment for elderly relatives that “some people online” were “already offended” by. Adams said his words were “misportrayed” and “mischaracterized.”

   “It’s the challenge of communicating in a highly partisan and political environment,” he said.