U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams called for Houston minorities to place greater trust in science Sunday, part of his campaign to better engage vulnerable populations in their battle against COVID-19.
At a forum at The Health Museum in Houston, Adams said people need to “put politics aside” and support public health strategies such as social distancing, mask wearing and, eventually, vaccines. He said that everyone needs to understand that “the health of one of us is the health of all of us.”
“This is fundamentally a public health crisis, more so than a health care crisis,” said Adams. “But the science itself only gets you so far. The important thing is understanding how to get the science to those who most need it and how to get them to trust it.”
Adams’ comments follow resistance in some circles to mask wearing and some poll results that find less than 50 percent of people say they would take a vaccine once it is available. A Baylor doctor at the forum said that is consistent with the response she gets from her mostly minority patients.
Adams promised that coronavirus vaccines will be free under any federally funded program.
The forum was attended by public health officials, politicians or their representatives and leaders of historically Black universities, churches and communities, all working to slow the coronavirus’ spread of the coronavirus.
Adams will meet with leaders of Baylor College of Medicine and then Houston Methodist Hospital Monday before heading to Texas A&M University. Universities, where there have been many large outbreaks, are another of Adams’ priorities.
“College students are a tough audience because they know they’re at low risk,” said Adams. “They’re not motivated from a health perspective so we need them to understand that there is a real cost to them in terms of living their life and returning to normal — college football, spring break — if they don’t follow these measures.”
Adams called 2020-2021 “the most important flu vaccine season of our lifetime,” noting the similarity of the two disease’s symptoms. He said a surge of flu cases, in addition to COVID-19 cases, could not only overwhelm hospitals, but also that widespread testing to determine which condition people have could cause workplaces to close out of concern the infection is the coronavirus.
Despite the devastation COVID-19 has caused, Adams sees one bright spot.
“I think five years down the read, we’ll look back at this time and say what a tragedy it was to lose all these lives, but it was also when we finally had our aha moment,” said Adams. “Because that’s when we finally realized the system was broken and we had the courage to make the necessary changes so nothing like this would ever happen again.”
todd.ackerman@chron.com
"general" - Google News
September 28, 2020 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/339cEEI
Surgeon General, in Houston, calls for greater trust in science - Houston Chronicle
"general" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YopsF9
https://ift.tt/3faOei7
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Surgeon General, in Houston, calls for greater trust in science - Houston Chronicle"
Post a Comment