Dr. Jerome Adams talks monkeypox and COVID vaccines
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Dr. Jerome Adams, WISH-TV’s medical expert and a former U.S. surgeon general, talked Wednesday about the latest coronavirus news as well as the latest news on monkeypox cases reported in the U.S., and COVID vaccinations for kids.
Monkeypox
Adams said, “It’s important to know that the current demographics of the outbreak tell us that men who have sex with men are the ones who are being disproportionately impacted right now with there being over 300 cases that are currently occurring in the United States. That is not to say that that’s the only group that’s at risk. Monkeypox is spread by close personal contact. Those are the individuals right now who were focused on alerting in terms of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and the federal government is deploying vaccinations to places where they’ve had the most cases, and where they know that that there are people at risk. It’s also important to know that you can get vaccinated after a potential exposure, and that can prevent progression of monkeypox. If you’ve been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed or suspected of having monkeypox, make sure you talk to your doctor or call the health department because you may be eligible for vaccination.”
Adam went on to say, “Well as you mentioned, the testing only unveils the tip of the iceberg. In most cases, we saw this with COVID and we see this every year with the flu. There’s every reason to believe that there are at least double if not 4-5 times the number of cases out there as we’re actually revealing with testing, because testing is not widespread yet. Right now if you want to get tested, you have to get approved and it has to be sent to the C.D.C., then it takes several weeks to come back and in that time, someone could spread to many other people. The new White House plan that was announced yesterday is going to push testing out to hospitals into other commercial labs, so it can be more widespread, but no doubt about it. While people shouldn’t be alarmed at this point, they should know that this is absolutely more widespread than what the testing indicates, and that we’re going to see this get worse before it gets better. We are in an exponential growth phase.”
“I actually spoke with CDC Director Wolinsky last week. I’ve spoken with FDA commissioner Bob Calif recently and with Francis Collins, the advisor to the president, and scientific advisor to the president. They’re taking this very seriously on a federal level. One of the things that’s concerning is COVID is still spreading. It’s out there and there’s limited bandwidth. There’s limited funding that congress has appropriated so really my concern is that congress is taking it’s eye off the ball. It’s not giving the funding and the resources that are needed to deal with COVID, as well as to deal with new and emerging outbreaks like monkey pox. Unfortunately we’re seeing many of the same problems that occurred in 2020 with COVID happening with monkeypox, because of the lack of our ability to walk into them at the same time, and poor funding for public health and public health infrastructure.”
COVID vaccine for children
Adams discussed what parents should consider before getting the vaccine for their kids.
“Well, kids are at lower risk of dying. That is true. They’re at low risk for hospitalization but we don’t know which kids are going to be hospitalized. The majority of kids who actually are ending up in the hospital with COVID are kids who are perfectly healthy, so parents should know that. They should know that again if you don’t die or end up in the hospital, still one in five people are getting long COVID. It can cause your brain to age upwards of 10 years. Imagine a five year old brain ages up to 10 years, you’re losing that development. Those are the reasons I tell parents, ‘If I were in your shoes, I would strongly consider vaccination if my kids are all vaccinated, but talk to your doctor.’ Hit the facts, and understand the differences between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccinations for your kids, and the pros and the cons. I hope you’ll come to a decision that it is going to protect your kids and again for me that decision is getting my kids vaccinated, and what I recommend to all of my family and friends.”