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- “I always say to people, it is your choice, but choices come with consequences to you and to other people,” Adams said.
- “More mitigation is coming, whether it’s masking or whether it’s closures or whether it’s your kids having to return to virtual learning, that is coming,” he added.
- The warning comes as public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned over the spike in new infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
The former U.S. surgeon general is urging Americans to get vaccinated as he says the COVID-19 pandemic is “spiraling out of control” again.
In an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said not enough people are vaccinated as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread across the country.
“I always say to people, it is your choice, but choices come with consequences to you and to other people,” Adams said.
“More mitigation is coming, whether it’s masking or whether it’s closures or whether it’s your kids having to return to virtual learning, that is coming. And it’s coming because this pandemic is spiraling out of control yet again and it’s spiraling out of control because we don’t have people vaccinated,” he said.
“So get vaccinated because it helps your neighbors, but get vaccinated because it’s going to help every single American enjoy the freedoms that we want to return to,” he added.
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The warning comes as public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned over the spike in new infections, hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in communities with low vaccination rates.
The current seven-day average for new infections is 40,246, a nearly 47-percent increase from the week prior. Hospitalizations have increased more than 32 percent and deaths more than 19 percent from last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just 57 percent of eligible Americans have been fully vaccinated, a significant gap from the 70 percent of the population experts estimate would have to be immunized to contain the pandemic.
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