President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Jerome M. Adams on Thursday to serve as the next surgeon general, according to a statement posted on WhiteHouse.gov.
Dr. Jerome M. Adams.
Adams is currently Indiana’s health commissioner and served in that post while Vice President Mike Pence was governor of Indiana.
He holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of California at Berkeley, and earned an M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine, according to the White House.
The surgeon general nominee tweeted that he’s truly honored that the president selected him for the post.
While serving as Indiana’s health commissioner, Adams oversaw the state’s response to an HIV outbreak in 2014, The Washington Post reported. At least 181 people in a rural county contracted the disease, which was linked to infected needles used to inject opioids. Adams and Pence employed a needle exchange program to combat the outbreak.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said Adams will not speak to the media prior to his Senate confirmation, according to The Post. If confirmed, Adams would serve a four-year term.
He would succeed Vivek Murthy, appointed by President Obama. In April, Trump terminated Murthy, an ObamaCare advocate who frame gun control in terms of a health issue.
After firing Murthy, the Trump administration replaced him temporarily with Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, an African-American nurse.
