Surgeon General resigns at Biden’s request
Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams, MD, has stepped down from his position after being asked to do so by the staff of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to the surgeon general’s Twitter account.
The request was made in the hours before Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
“Its [sic] been the honor of my life to serve this Nation [sic], and I will do all I can to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve and maintain health,” Adams said in a Jan. 20 post.
During his tenure, Adams helped steer public health responses to hurricanes, addressed e-cigarette and marijuana use among youth and was often seen at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I wasn’t always right — because no one was, and this virus continues to humble all of us — but I was always sincere in my efforts to speak to every day [sic] Americans, and address the terrible health inequities this virus exposed,” Adams said in a Jan. 20 statement on the Surgeon General's Facebook page.
He also helped to increase the availability of naloxone to fight the opioid epidemic.
“We were able to increase Naloxone [sic] availability nationwide by over 400% and save countless lives,” Adams wrote on Facebook. “This is perhaps my proudest achievement, as my family has been personally impacted my substance misuse, and I firmly believe stigma remains one of our biggest killers and barriers to health.”
During his tenure, Adams also issued the first surgeon general’s report in more than a generation on smoking cessation. Adams also issued calls to action on hypertension control, maternal health and suicide prevention. Days before resigning, he also released the first-ever surgeon general’s report on community health and economic prosperity that Adams wrote “emphasizes the links between the health of our communities and the health of our economies.”
A replacement for Adams was not immediately named.
References:
Facebook page of Jerome Adams, MD
Perspective
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Adams did a very good job of trying to explain public health to a broader audience. The report that he released yesterday on community health and economic prosperity will be an important document for engagement of businesses for many years.
Adams was not in a position to fix the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. But Adams’ work on tobacco and opioid epidemic was important. Adams also often talked frequently and compellingly about the need to treat people with substance use disorders with dignity and cared deeply about the health challenges affecting the country. This may be why he was able to translate public health principles and ideas to a very broad audience.
Vice dean for public health practice and community engagement, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Perspective
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Adams served the Office of Surgeon General with great grace, dignity and respect. He brought to the office an emphasis on health equity and social and racial justice. He made many contributions to the public’s health, especially in the areas of decreasing opioid overdose, addressing the youth e-cigarette epidemic, emphasizing the problems associated with youth cannabis use, providing information about various methods for smoking cessation, and made contributions to addressing suicide and maternal health.
Adams was always willing to discuss any issue, to hear alternative viewpoints, and he always had a commitment to getting it right. In fact, he sought out alternative opinions to make sure that he was making decisions based on the best available information and reasoning. During the pandemic, he continued to speak the truth and stick to the science, despite political pressure that many executive branch leaders faced. He will be missed by the public health community but will continue to make great contributions in service of the public’s health.
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