INDIANAPOLIS — Get the COVID vaccine. That was the message Wednesday from U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
He was at Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis to promote the safety of the vaccine for people of all ethnicities and for Hoosiers to be inoculated when their turn comes around.
Dr. Adams is the former Indiana state health commissioner, a graduate of the I.U. School of Medicine and worked at three different local hospitals.
"We are at the beginning of the end, but, and this is an important but, what would be a true tragedy is if we had a tool to end this pandemic but it actually worsened disparity because the people who could most benefit from it end up being the people who don't get it, or who are unwilling to take it," said Dr. Adams.
The vaccine, he says is safe and effective. "I want people to know these vaccines are 95% effective. The bar we set was 50%, they're 95% effective, so you are truly, truly, denying yourself an opportunity to give yourself almost 100% protection if you choose not to get yourself vaccinated."
Adams appeared as more vaccine arrived in Central Indiana. I.U. Health received its first shipment of the Moderna vaccine Wednesday—about 4,000 doses.
In another development, the federal government has agreed to buy 100 million additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Pfizer will deliver the vaccine by the end of next July.
This comes after the Trump Administration turned down a previous offer of additional vaccines from Pfizer.
