Alex Brandon/AP
- Former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said he will be vaccinating his 11-year-old as soon as possible.
- "I see the medical risk of waiting for my 11 year old to eventually get COVID as far greater than the risk of potential harm from the vaccine," he said.
Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams announced on Twitter that he will vaccinate his 11-year-old as soon as possible.
His older children are already vaccinated, Adams told the Dallas Morning News.
"I'm a doctor, a former lab researcher, a public health expert – but I'm also a dad," Adams told the newspaper. "And COVID was the No. 6 leading cause of death in this country for children in September."
Adams, who served under the Trump administration and recently joined the faculty at Purdue University to advance health equity initiatives, has advocated for vaccinating children on Twitter.
"I see the medical risk of waiting for my 11 year old to eventually get COVID as far greater than the risk of potential harm from the vaccine, AND vaccination will make school, sports, and socializing easier for her (which is why she wants it)," he tweeted on November 1.
"Ironically people against vaccines and mitigation speak of the indirect harm to kids of quarantine, virtual school, and masking," he said in another tweet. "As a dad I greatly dislike those things too. You know the best tool we have to prevent/ eliminate them? By getting vaccinated!"
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the first coronavirus vaccine for young children last week, authorizing the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in children ages 5 to 11. In a clinical trial with over 2,000 young children, the shot was 91% effective at preventing symptomatic illness in this younger age group.
"We can't definitively prove anything- including vaccines- is 100% safe. You'll always be able to find some stone you feel is yet unturned. But I CAN prove to you Covid has caused 100s of child deaths, 1000s hospitalized and/or w/ long haul symptoms, & 150k w/ lost caregivers," Adams tweeted on Saturday.
In a previous interview with Insider's John Dorman, Adams called for increased transparency from the Biden administration around vaccine authorization for kids, suggesting it was taking too long for the FDA approval.
Adams began his term as surgeon general under former President Donald Trump in September 2017 and was meant to serve until September 2021. In January of this year, Adams resigned at the request of then-President-elect Joe Biden.
"We need Trump people and Biden people to get vaccinated," Adams told the Dallas Morning News. "We need to engage them all."