building a culture of health and prevention in all sectors. As part of those efforts, Dr. Adams has commissioned a surgeon general’s report to explore the connection between private sector investments and public policies leading to healthier communities and advancing business and community prosperity.
After agreeing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal government should be tracking the impact of the coronavirus within different demographic groups, Dr. Adams said that his office had been discussing health equity prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
“But my office, long before COVID-19, has been talking about health equity, has been talking about the need to help people understand when they’re at risk and to actually intervene,” Dr. Adams said.
Dr. Adams went on to explain why African-Americans are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
“When you look at being black in America, number one: people unfortunately are more likely to be of low socioeconomic status, which makes it harder to social distance,” Dr. Adams said. “Number two, we know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease.”
Dr. Adams added he has personally shared having high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and being pre-diabetic.
“So I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America, and I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID,” Dr. Adams said. “It’s why we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread.”
Dr. Adams has earned two bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a master’s degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley and a medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine.
He has been a leader in numerous professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Association and the Indiana Society of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Adams is also the former Health Commissioner of Indiana, where he led the State’s responses to Ebola, Zika, and to the largest ever HIV outbreak in the United States related to injection drug use.
Dr. Adams has pledged to lead with science, and facilitate locally led solutions to the nation’s most difficult health problems. He also feels his toughest, but, most important, job is being a father to his teen sons, Caden and Eli, and his daughter, Millie.