Facing ‘a Lot of Blowback,’ Trump’s Surgeon General Steps Up
Dr. Jerome Adams is poised to take on a more prominent role in the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. Are his bosses willing to back him?
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and
WASHINGTON — Dr. Jerome Adams faces two difficult challenges as President Trump’s surgeon general: He’s an African American working for a man routinely accused of racism, and he is a scientist in an administration that has shown contempt for science.
He can live with that.
“If people feel that the president needs to have a different perspective on the African-American community, the one thing I would say is, he’s not going to get it if there aren’t any African Americans in the administration,” Dr. Adams said in an interview, adding, “People are always saying we need more Black voices represented and more Black perspectives represented, but they’re always telling every Black person in the administration you should quit.”
“Those two things don’t fit together,” he said.
Now, as coronavirus cases surge and demands for racial justice roil the nation, Dr. Adams is stepping into more of a starring role. He will be the central figure in a public service campaign aimed at getting Americans to take the pandemic seriously and do what the president, with rare exceptions, does not do: follow public health guidance and wear a mask.
“I’m pleading with your viewers, I’m begging you: Please understand that we are not trying to take away your freedoms when we say wear a face covering,” Dr. Adams said on Monday morning on his boss’s favorite news show, “Fox & Friends.”
That message must compete with relentless criticism that has come his way precisely because of his race and his stature. Critics have called him a “token Black guy” and “a clown.” Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, accused him of spewing Mr. Trump’s “racist dog whistles.”
“His own community is not exactly a fan of this administration, and then they see Jerome up there representing the White House, and he gets a lot of blowback,” said Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. “At one point he did tell me he was having a pretty rough time.”
At meetings of Mr. Trump’s coronavirus task force, Dr. Adams is often a quiet presence, but he chimes in on his signature issue: racial disparities in health. He said in an interview last week that he had spoken to both Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence about the issue. He was also straightforward about working for a president who has been accused of racism.
“I have a powerful opportunity to have an influence in this administration, and I feel like I need to be at the table,” Dr. Adams said, adding, “That’s how I deal with it.”
Politics and science have often collided in Washington, though perhaps never as much as under Mr. Trump, when even face coverings have turned political.
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