Dr. Jerome Adams on fight against omicron, dropping mask mandates
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — WISH-TV medical expert and former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams gave his thoughts on a variety of topics regarding the latest developments in the pandemic in a conversation with News 8’s Alexis Rogers on Wednesday.
Adams offered his perspective on the recent reduction in cases and hospitalizations, whether it’s time to drop mask mandates and the Eli Lilly treatment that was recently granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
While the battle against the omicron variant has taken a positive turn recently, Adams days it’s not time to declare victory just yet.
He does agree things are headed in the right direction though.
“It’s important to remember we still had almost 3,000 people die in the United States yesterday, 15,000 over the last week,” Adams said. “When you look at our 7-day average, there’s still a lot of pain and suffering for a lot of people out there, mostly the unvaccinated. But it does look like things are trending in the right direction.”
To put the mask mandate conversation in context, Adams used an analogy.
“Medically and scientifically, it’s the right time to have that discussion. We are coming down, but if you’re driving 110 mph and the police officer pulls you over when you’re going 90 [mph], you can’t say, ‘Well, I’m better than what I was doing just a few miles back.’ We have to remember we’re still in the orange, still in the red in many counties across Indiana. And I just want people to have discussions about the metrics, cases, positivities, hospitalizations,” he said.
When asked about Lilly’s new treatment, Adams explained the value it provides and why continuing to get tested is so crucial.
“It’s really important because Lily’s prior monoclonal got pulled off the market along with another one. We were down to just one medication and then the oral antivirals were approved to get us to three. This makes a fourth in our our arsenal. But the most important thing is that people get tested. If they have symptoms, go to their doctors so that they can get put on these treatments because these treatments mean nothing if people don’t go in, get tested and get put on them,” he said.