Charlotte Webster-
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Friday confirmed that tobacco and drugs weakens one’s resistance to Covid-19, as he urged all Americans to avoid doing drugs.
American’s top surgeon had initially been addressing African Americans and Latino communities at the White House COVID-19 press briefing, when he advised them to avoid “alcohol, tobacco and drugs” to protect their health during the pandemic. Shortly afterwards, he modified his comments following a challenge from PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor who referred to Adams’ colloquial terms for relatives, challenging the targeting of his advice to minorities and urging the surgeon to rephrase his advice and direct it to all Americans and not just the African American community.
“Some people online … are already offended by that language and the idea that behaviors may be leading to these high death rates,” noted Alcindor. She asked Adams to respond to “people who might be offended by the language you used.” Adams obliged and said his comments were “not meant to be offensive” and that the advice was for all Americans.
He explained that he uses the language in his own family and that he didn’t mean to offend anyone.
“I have a Puerto Rican brother-in-law. I call my granddaddy ‘Granddaddy.’ I have relatives who call their grandparents ‘Big Mama.’ So that was not meant to be offensive,” he said. “That’s the language we use, and that I use, and we need to continue to target our outreach to those communities.”
The advice confirms earlier but understated warnings to the world for individuals to take a serious look at their lifestyle habits, especially tobacco, drugs, and alcohol and seriously consider giving those dangerous habits up to preserve their life.
Death Rates
Adams had been addressing the “alarming,” disproportionate death rate suffered by people of color in the U.S. from COVID-19, which he attributed to behavioral, medical and “social” issues. In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Blacks are 25% of the population but almost 50% of the confirmed coronavirus cases and 75% of the deaths, he noted. The Surgeon told Black and Latino communities to “step it up” and follow social distancing and hand-washing guidelines, and “avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs.” Do it, “if not for yourself, then for your abuela, do it for your grandaddy, do it for your big mama, do it for your pop pop,” Adams urged.
He also addressed medical issues among people of color, such as high blood pressure and asthma — and “social ills” likely linked to higher death rates. Adams pulled an asthma inhaler out of his pocket, which he said he has been “carrying around” for 40 years “out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack.”
The “chronic burden of medical ills is likely to make people of color, especially, less resilient to the ravages of COVID-19,” Adams warned. “And it’s possibly, in fact, likely, that the burden of social ills is also contributing.” He noted, for example, that many African Americans and Latinos do not have jobs that allow them to telework to remain at home, making social distancing or sheltering at home difficult, and added that they also tend to live in more crowded communities and in multi-generational housing, he added.
His overall advice in practical terms applies to all individuals that smoke tobacco and use drugs. They are to be conscious, not mainly of an increased vulnerability to Covid-19, but more so to the weakness of their immune system in fighting the disease once it sets in.