Dr. Jerome Adams: ‘Our new normal’ may come by late spring, early summer
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Deaths from the coronavirus are trending up in 35 states, but cases are down in 49 states.
Yet, Dr. Jerome Adams told News 8 viewers on Friday that Americans should be “appropriately pleased that cases are coming down” yet remember hospitalizations and deaths remain high.
The WISH-TV medical expert and former U.S. surgeon general also talked Friday about his tweet that people can see more ads for alcohol and tobacco than for vaccines. The tweet came as the Biden administration has made a “big ad buy” to disperse vaccine information, Adams said.
“We want to make sure we are aware all the people who are spreading this information, on Spotify, so that we can counter misinformation that other people are putting on there. We want to make sure we’re getting the right information to people so they can make an informed choice. It’s still about making a choice. But, we want it to be an informed one.”
He also discussed the plans to a vaccine for children younger than 5.
“What it will do is give some of those parents out there who are scared, who were worried, who want to travel, who have older kids in their house going in and out of school, the ability to protect themselves and psychologically and — again, this could be construed as a good thing or a bad thing — but psychologically it’s going to give public health officials and other people more confidence to be able to reopen with the knowledge that, hey, if you want to protect yourself, there’s a vaccine available out there for you to protect yourself and your child, and so we don’t need a massive mitigation measures in many people’s minds moving forward once we get to that place where everyone can protect themselves from the vaccine.”
He also noted, “We are not in an endemic state quite yet. We’ve still got a ways to go. But, the good news is, I think, later this spring, earlier this summer, we have the tools and we have the ability to be in a good spot if we can continue to promote vaccinations and boosters and if people continue to do their part now to keep from overwhelming hospitals.
“So, good news coming, we’re not going to be at an endemic state anytime soon, but we will be in a place where we can live with the virus and get to our new normal.”