United States Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams appeared on the Today show on Monday, March 23 to offer an update on the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., telling Savannah Guthrie that “this week, it’s going to get bad.” Adams shared that many people have not been properly practicing social distancing despite repeated warnings and urged citizens to remain home.
“I want America to understand — this week, it’s going to get bad,” he said. “This is how the spread is occurring. So we really, really need everyone to stay at home,” Adams continued. “I think that there are a lot of people who are doing the right things, but I think that unfortunately we’re finding out a lot of people think this can’t happen to them. … Every single day counts. Every single second counts. And right now, there are not enough people out there who are taking this seriously.”
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There are currently over 340,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world and over 15,000 deaths. The number of cases in the United States has topped 35,000 and there have been over 450 deaths.
Adams also offered a message to young people specifically, noting that many erroneously believe they cannot get seriously ill from the disease. “It’s important for young people to know you can get this disease, you can be hospitalized from this disease, you can die from this disease, but most importantly, you can spread it to your loved ones,” he said.
“That’s why I reached out and I want to give a shout out to Kylie Jenner, who stepped up last week and sent out a message,” Adams added. “My daughter and my son said, ‘Dad make sure you call out Loren Gray,’ and I believe it’s Roman Atwood. … This is serious and this includes you.”
The Surgeon General had previously addressed influencers including Jenner during an appearance on Good Morning America last week and asked them to tell their followers to stay home, something Jenner had already been doing. On Thursday, she shared another series of videos on her Instagram Story telling her followers that she herself had been self-quarantining for over a week and urged them to do the same.
“Please stay inside, you guys,” she said. “Please say inside, practice social distancing, self-quarantine. If you live with your parents, you don’t want to go home and get your parents sick. You might have it and not even know and be infecting other people. It’s serious and the only way that we’re going to slow this down is if we do this since there’s not a cure right now. Nobody is immune to this, millennials are not immune to this.”
“I love you guys, we’re gonna get through this together,” she continued. “We just have to listen to each other, respect each other, self-quarantine.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Barcroft Media
