General surgeon: pandemic ‘will get worse’, actions now ‘will determine how serious it is’

American General Surgeon Jerome AdamsJerome AdamsSunday Shows Sneak Peek: US Health Officials Prepare For Rise In COVID-19 After Holiday The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC – Trump’s Transition OK; Biden Taps Treasury and State Experiment in Overnight Health Care: AstraZeneca Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate is Up to 90% Effective PLUS said on Sunday that the coronavirus pandemic would “worsen” in the coming weeks, but noted that the first vaccines would likely be available to vulnerable populations by mid-December.

“I want to be frank with the American people, it’s going to get worse over the next few weeks, but the actions we take in the next few days will determine how bad it is or whether or not we continue to flatten our curve,” A Adams told guest host Bret Baier on “Fox News Sunday”.

“Right before Thanksgiving, we actually saw cases start to level off in many states that had been aggressively mitigating,” he added.

Adams noted that Pfizer is expected to submit its emergency use authorization to the Food and Drug Administration on December 10, with Moderna following suit on December 18.

“We are a few weeks away from starting to vaccinate vulnerable people and we can significantly protect those at risk of contracting the virus, so wait a little longer,” he said. Science has never been stronger in terms of what we can do… wearing a mask is an instrument of freedom, it will actually allow my children to go to school, to protect my mother.

For the general population, Adams said, “it will probably be the end of the first trimester, the start of the first trimester of next year before you can get a vaccine,” but vaccinating the most vulnerable would likely reduce loss of life. and would help clear up the infection. curve.

Although Adams said he was “personally … incredibly optimistic” about the vaccine rollout, he added that he wished the pandemic “wasn’t superimposed on an election.”

“I wish we could come together as a nation and really talk about science rather than politics,” he added.