On the Surgeon General's web page, two of his current priorities are Health Misinformation and Covid-19. I'd like to see these take priority over Social Connection.
As far as I'm aware the Surgeon General has been silent while multiple States try to implement mask bans even though Covid cases are starting to surge again. It's the only way I know of to protect myself from an aerosol virus. Does he or the CDC not care about transmission of Covid? Why are States trying to strip people of their right to Public Health?
Are there any updates on Project Next Generation vaccines?
Will there be any initiatives to improve indoor air quality in order to reduce viral transmission?
With respect to health misinformation, how about taking on Dr. Ashish Jha. The other night in an interview on Chris Cuomo's program, Dr. Jha stated it's now a "fringe position" to still mask indoors. Covid cases are increasing. Not as many die from Covid, but why is death the benchmark when millions are being disabled by Long Covid? Does anyone in Public Health not worry about the future long-term effects of repeat Covid infections on patients, health care systems and the economy? We're all vulnerable and making a full recovery or getting Long Covid is a little like playing Russian roulette.
Jha…I am affiliated with the same academic institution, the one that produced Emily Oster— economist who became a self proclaimed COVID expert. Jha calling masks a “ fringe position “— sadly not surprising but why increase the stigma? When Rochelle Walensky called them the “scarlet letter “ it was the prelude to Biden declaring the pandemic over in 2021…
Jerome Adams posts photos of himself masking on planes, guess he’s a fringe position, or maybe just a decent physician and person.
Dr Jerome Adams is truly an honorable man. When all the Republicans went to their last convention, he- the Republican Surgeon General, came to Hawaii instead, and straightened out our Covid situation here. Replacing him was a mistake
Please ask for safer conditions in healthcare for those at high risk, for seniors, and seniors at high risk. We need places we can go to to see all six, seven or eight doctors in one morning instead of all those trips. We need dedicated Monday mornings the whole half day, to schedule safe doctor appointments after buildings have been closed on Sundays, so the air is better. We need all medical personnel working with at-risk, elderly, and elderly at high risk to be wearing well fitted N 95 masks, and to have Air filtration systems that follow scientific standards for most efficiently reducing rebreathed air in the office, waiting rooms, and patient rooms. All of those rooms should also be equipped with digital air quality monitors with displays, so patients can see the air quality where they are sitting and waiting. And of course healthcare and personnel need the funding for this. Maybe it would save money to just build facilities like this instead of upgrading everything, because it seems most people think they don't need this. Thank you for listening.
My daughter is 25 years old and has long covid for over a year. She was fully boosted, vaccinated and got covid twice 3 months apart while working. She has had to stop working and rest for a year while our family supports her.
My question is , “Young adults in their twenties are having to leave the workforce due to long covid making them sick. What is medicine and public health leadership doing to remedy and support these 20-30 year olds to get their health improved so they can return to work? What are your new ideas to help these young adults?”
Also, society is concerned about children and teenagers who are infected repeatedly despite the immunizations and their chances of getting long covid over the next few years, disrupting their futures. Thank you.
Not just the plan for the next pandemic, but how to make sure it gets properly implemented. We had a pandemic plan in place when Covid hit, but it wasn't fully implemented, due in part to poor coordination at the federal (and state) level. Is that fixed? If not, why not and when will it be? Because the next pandemic is coming...
What can be done to find more funding for basic research at the federal level,, especially for cancer, the scourge that affects almost everyone?
What can be done to find more funding for addiction treatment, including for alcoholism, which is still the most widespread addiction but is often given short shrift to opioids?
Another suggestion: Start a campaign to take on the misinformation found in the Project 2025 agenda. I'm attaching a link and what it proposes for the NIH, CDC and FDA just to name a few is frightening.
Given the normalizing of COVID infections, minimizing of long COVID public health impact, and denial of nosocomial COVID acquisition risk to patients, in which the officials appointed by the current administration persist, I would like to know whether Dr. Murthy feels that 3 patients dying from nosocomial COVID are less concerning to him, than 3 patients dying from nosocomially-acquired TB.
Let's remember that when TB spreads, only 5-10% of the infected develop TB disease. Among nosocomially-acquired TB patients, that percentage is likely higher, just like it is for nosocomially acquired COVID.
Frankly I’m underwhelmed with him: Jerome Adams has been a much better communicator re: COVID—
The issue of loneliness as a priority is especially disingenuous. Um, there are a lot of factors but he omits the pandemic and at risk people taking precautions completely from the narrative.
There was a recent national meeting on his loneliness crisis in DC, and he didn’t show up.
His call to arms on social media is another concern with no actionable plan.
Please nail him down on creating actual plans for his concerns. He feels like a political operative and as the current administration has been less than transparent about the health of the president, he fits right in. Not a fan.
Given my consulting for Juul Labs, you won’t be surprised that my question has to do with nicotine and vaping, Jeremy!!
Try this on (in your voice; and you could consider sending it to him in advance so he can access the links):
“You issued a Surgeon General’s Report at the end of 2016 on e-cigarettes and youth and young adults. I did a write-up of the report for Slate (https://slate.com/technology/2016/12/the-surgeon-generals-report-on-e-cigarettes-is-surprisingly-mild.html). I judged your report as a helpful synthesis of a lot of information, but I was a bit more circumspect about the connection of the findings to some of the policy recommendations.
"A lot has happened in the intervening 8 years. For example, I wrote about a recent study last month and tried to provide more context and nuance, including being prepared to reject simplistic binary thinking (https://substack.com/home/post/p-145732588).
“How has your thinking about nicotine and vaping changed, why, and what more do you need to know to refine your advice to policymakers, clinicians like myself, and the broader public?”
What plans/ actions can booster agency expertise after Supreme Court Chevron Decision ..
…. The US Supreme Court has again overturned longstanding precedent, this time getting rid of a 40-year- old standard for decision making that required federal courts to defer to reasonable agency decisions where federal law is silent or unclear.Jul 1, 2024
Have agencies recovered from the gutting of personal during the last Trump administration?
How do we get people to understand the ever changing risk calculations we have to make in regards to something like a pandemic? I think many health experts assumed that people would find it worthwhile to mask up, social distance, and get vaccinated to protect themselves AND others when, in reality, a staggeringly high percentage of the American populace didn't think it was worth what they had to give up. That could be because they were simply incapable of making an accurate risk calculation, but it is also likely that people have different ideas about what's worth it to them and what's not.
There are so many important questions to ask, and I know you are likely to address many of them. Top of mind for me are: 1) how can we more effectively talk about public health issues in a way that resonates with the individual; what can communities do to address their members who are at risk of or experiencing social isolation; what can we all do to decrease "device" time and replace it with activities such as reading, play, learning; what can we do to support our health care providers and the systems in which they work? I would also love to hear his thoughts about strengths and weaknesses of our ever-changing health care system AND what are his thoughts on the integration of AI in health care delivery and ways to use the strengths of AI to foster healthy behaviors and choices and improve overall health (independent of health care systems). Thanks for asking, and I hope you have a great time with this interview.
1. To what extent has the federal government replenished its stockpile of protective gear, ventilators, vaccinations for known serious pathogens, etc.?
2. What is his position on surgical transitioning for minors?
3. What preparation exists for an Ebola-like health emergency?
What adverse health effects could disinformation, misinformation, and outright lying, (not only about health) especially from an authority figure, or someone with a large media presence, have on an individual? And what’s the remedy? Thanks
Please thank Dr. Murthy for declaring gun violence a public health crisis. Guns killed over 43,000 Americans in 2023 and injured and maimed another 76,000. To reduce gun violence, we should apply the same time-tested public health approach used to reduce death and injury from cars. One example: We strengthened age requirements for obtaining a driver’s license, including a graduated licensing system (driver’s permit) for young drivers. In the US, a 20 year old can legally carry a high-powered rifle in public within several hundred feet of a Presidential candidate and there is nothing law enforcement can do until he fires his weapon. Please ask Dr. Murthy what he can do to advance stronger age requirements for owning or possessing all types of firearms.
Also, not a public health question, but could you please address why there was no standard presser with a doctor + hospital administrator explaining the diagnosis and treatment of Donald Trump after the assassination attempt? Still, to date, I find no professional medical explanation of the nature his injury and prognosis. Maybe you can direct me to this information?
I am confused about how he could sustain such a minor injury after an encounter with automatic rifle ammunition.
On the Surgeon General's web page, two of his current priorities are Health Misinformation and Covid-19. I'd like to see these take priority over Social Connection.
As far as I'm aware the Surgeon General has been silent while multiple States try to implement mask bans even though Covid cases are starting to surge again. It's the only way I know of to protect myself from an aerosol virus. Does he or the CDC not care about transmission of Covid? Why are States trying to strip people of their right to Public Health?
Are there any updates on Project Next Generation vaccines?
Will there be any initiatives to improve indoor air quality in order to reduce viral transmission?
With respect to health misinformation, how about taking on Dr. Ashish Jha. The other night in an interview on Chris Cuomo's program, Dr. Jha stated it's now a "fringe position" to still mask indoors. Covid cases are increasing. Not as many die from Covid, but why is death the benchmark when millions are being disabled by Long Covid? Does anyone in Public Health not worry about the future long-term effects of repeat Covid infections on patients, health care systems and the economy? We're all vulnerable and making a full recovery or getting Long Covid is a little like playing Russian roulette.
Jha…I am affiliated with the same academic institution, the one that produced Emily Oster— economist who became a self proclaimed COVID expert. Jha calling masks a “ fringe position “— sadly not surprising but why increase the stigma? When Rochelle Walensky called them the “scarlet letter “ it was the prelude to Biden declaring the pandemic over in 2021…
Jerome Adams posts photos of himself masking on planes, guess he’s a fringe position, or maybe just a decent physician and person.
Dr Jerome Adams is truly an honorable man. When all the Republicans went to their last convention, he- the Republican Surgeon General, came to Hawaii instead, and straightened out our Covid situation here. Replacing him was a mistake
Please ask for safer conditions in healthcare for those at high risk, for seniors, and seniors at high risk. We need places we can go to to see all six, seven or eight doctors in one morning instead of all those trips. We need dedicated Monday mornings the whole half day, to schedule safe doctor appointments after buildings have been closed on Sundays, so the air is better. We need all medical personnel working with at-risk, elderly, and elderly at high risk to be wearing well fitted N 95 masks, and to have Air filtration systems that follow scientific standards for most efficiently reducing rebreathed air in the office, waiting rooms, and patient rooms. All of those rooms should also be equipped with digital air quality monitors with displays, so patients can see the air quality where they are sitting and waiting. And of course healthcare and personnel need the funding for this. Maybe it would save money to just build facilities like this instead of upgrading everything, because it seems most people think they don't need this. Thank you for listening.
I’d like to know the long range plan for Covid—specifically, are we to continue to allow our children to get repeatedly infected?
My daughter is 25 years old and has long covid for over a year. She was fully boosted, vaccinated and got covid twice 3 months apart while working. She has had to stop working and rest for a year while our family supports her.
My question is , “Young adults in their twenties are having to leave the workforce due to long covid making them sick. What is medicine and public health leadership doing to remedy and support these 20-30 year olds to get their health improved so they can return to work? What are your new ideas to help these young adults?”
Also, society is concerned about children and teenagers who are infected repeatedly despite the immunizations and their chances of getting long covid over the next few years, disrupting their futures. Thank you.
Not just the plan for the next pandemic, but how to make sure it gets properly implemented. We had a pandemic plan in place when Covid hit, but it wasn't fully implemented, due in part to poor coordination at the federal (and state) level. Is that fixed? If not, why not and when will it be? Because the next pandemic is coming...
What can be done to find more funding for basic research at the federal level,, especially for cancer, the scourge that affects almost everyone?
What can be done to find more funding for addiction treatment, including for alcoholism, which is still the most widespread addiction but is often given short shrift to opioids?
What are one or two most important things the country can do now to prepare for the next pandemic?
How can the credibility of science be restored?
Another suggestion: Start a campaign to take on the misinformation found in the Project 2025 agenda. I'm attaching a link and what it proposes for the NIH, CDC and FDA just to name a few is frightening.
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-14.pdf
Excellent - thank you for doing this!
Given the normalizing of COVID infections, minimizing of long COVID public health impact, and denial of nosocomial COVID acquisition risk to patients, in which the officials appointed by the current administration persist, I would like to know whether Dr. Murthy feels that 3 patients dying from nosocomial COVID are less concerning to him, than 3 patients dying from nosocomially-acquired TB.
Let's remember that when TB spreads, only 5-10% of the infected develop TB disease. Among nosocomially-acquired TB patients, that percentage is likely higher, just like it is for nosocomially acquired COVID.
Frankly I’m underwhelmed with him: Jerome Adams has been a much better communicator re: COVID—
The issue of loneliness as a priority is especially disingenuous. Um, there are a lot of factors but he omits the pandemic and at risk people taking precautions completely from the narrative.
There was a recent national meeting on his loneliness crisis in DC, and he didn’t show up.
His call to arms on social media is another concern with no actionable plan.
Please nail him down on creating actual plans for his concerns. He feels like a political operative and as the current administration has been less than transparent about the health of the president, he fits right in. Not a fan.
Given my consulting for Juul Labs, you won’t be surprised that my question has to do with nicotine and vaping, Jeremy!!
Try this on (in your voice; and you could consider sending it to him in advance so he can access the links):
“You issued a Surgeon General’s Report at the end of 2016 on e-cigarettes and youth and young adults. I did a write-up of the report for Slate (https://slate.com/technology/2016/12/the-surgeon-generals-report-on-e-cigarettes-is-surprisingly-mild.html). I judged your report as a helpful synthesis of a lot of information, but I was a bit more circumspect about the connection of the findings to some of the policy recommendations.
"A lot has happened in the intervening 8 years. For example, I wrote about a recent study last month and tried to provide more context and nuance, including being prepared to reject simplistic binary thinking (https://substack.com/home/post/p-145732588).
“How has your thinking about nicotine and vaping changed, why, and what more do you need to know to refine your advice to policymakers, clinicians like myself, and the broader public?”
What plans/ actions can booster agency expertise after Supreme Court Chevron Decision ..
…. The US Supreme Court has again overturned longstanding precedent, this time getting rid of a 40-year- old standard for decision making that required federal courts to defer to reasonable agency decisions where federal law is silent or unclear.Jul 1, 2024
Have agencies recovered from the gutting of personal during the last Trump administration?
How do we get people to understand the ever changing risk calculations we have to make in regards to something like a pandemic? I think many health experts assumed that people would find it worthwhile to mask up, social distance, and get vaccinated to protect themselves AND others when, in reality, a staggeringly high percentage of the American populace didn't think it was worth what they had to give up. That could be because they were simply incapable of making an accurate risk calculation, but it is also likely that people have different ideas about what's worth it to them and what's not.
There are so many important questions to ask, and I know you are likely to address many of them. Top of mind for me are: 1) how can we more effectively talk about public health issues in a way that resonates with the individual; what can communities do to address their members who are at risk of or experiencing social isolation; what can we all do to decrease "device" time and replace it with activities such as reading, play, learning; what can we do to support our health care providers and the systems in which they work? I would also love to hear his thoughts about strengths and weaknesses of our ever-changing health care system AND what are his thoughts on the integration of AI in health care delivery and ways to use the strengths of AI to foster healthy behaviors and choices and improve overall health (independent of health care systems). Thanks for asking, and I hope you have a great time with this interview.
1. To what extent has the federal government replenished its stockpile of protective gear, ventilators, vaccinations for known serious pathogens, etc.?
2. What is his position on surgical transitioning for minors?
3. What preparation exists for an Ebola-like health emergency?
What adverse health effects could disinformation, misinformation, and outright lying, (not only about health) especially from an authority figure, or someone with a large media presence, have on an individual? And what’s the remedy? Thanks
Please thank Dr. Murthy for declaring gun violence a public health crisis. Guns killed over 43,000 Americans in 2023 and injured and maimed another 76,000. To reduce gun violence, we should apply the same time-tested public health approach used to reduce death and injury from cars. One example: We strengthened age requirements for obtaining a driver’s license, including a graduated licensing system (driver’s permit) for young drivers. In the US, a 20 year old can legally carry a high-powered rifle in public within several hundred feet of a Presidential candidate and there is nothing law enforcement can do until he fires his weapon. Please ask Dr. Murthy what he can do to advance stronger age requirements for owning or possessing all types of firearms.
Also, not a public health question, but could you please address why there was no standard presser with a doctor + hospital administrator explaining the diagnosis and treatment of Donald Trump after the assassination attempt? Still, to date, I find no professional medical explanation of the nature his injury and prognosis. Maybe you can direct me to this information?
I am confused about how he could sustain such a minor injury after an encounter with automatic rifle ammunition.