New surgeon general from Indiana sworn in by Vice President Pence

WASHINGTON – Jerome Adams was sworn in as the nation’s 20th surgeon general Tuesday, saying his motto will be “Better health through better partnerships.”

That’s something Indiana’s former health commissioner said he learned from Vice President Mike Pence, the man who administered Adams’ oath of office Tuesday, three years after having appointed Adams to the state job while serving as Indiana’s governor.

Pence, Adams recalled to the audience gathered in the vice president’s ceremonial office, was initially concerned that Adams might be too young to be Indiana’s health commissioner.

 “Someone said to him, `But governor, he’s 40,’” Adams recalled. To which Pence replied, “But he’s a really young-looking 40.”

Still, Adams said, Pence was always willing to give people a chance to prove themselves, so he “took a chance on this young, African-American guy from the East Coast.”

But the other side of the story, Adams said, is he also had reservations about Pence.

“The rumor was he was old school,” Adams said, "and not like the pop culture old school that the kids talk about, but older-super-conservative-from-southern-Indiana old school."

Adams said he was worried about being able to relate to someone so different — and to someone with so much more hair than he had. But neither of them let their initial reservations get in the way of their relationship.

“If the two of us could do that by working together and begin to have a positive influence on several health trends in our state, just imagine what all of us … all of the people in this country could do if we simply would commit to not judging people,” Adams said, as Pence led the room in applause.

Pence called it a “very personal honor” to administer Adams’ oath of office, which he did as Adams’ wife, Lacey, held a blue Bible. Afterward, Adams hugged his wife and daughter, and fist-bumped his sons and nephew.

Those applauding included Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma — who worked with Adams in Indiana — former Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.

Sometimes called the “nation’s doctor,” the surgeon general oversees the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

An anesthesiologist who has a master's degree in public health, Adams grew up on a family farm in Maryland. He made Indiana home after attending Indiana University School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkley.

Pence said he witnessed the leadership and integrity Adams will bring to his new job when Adams addressed such challenges in Indiana as reducing the state’s infant mortality rate, dealing with the nation’s first case of the MERS virus, and containing the HIV outbreak caused by the injection of oral painkillers in Southern Indiana.

“It was Dr. Adams who led from the front,” Pence said. “I saw that empathy for which he is so widely known.”

Adams said he’s eager to start helping the victims of Hurricane Harvey. And he wants to build better partnerships with the business and law enforcement communities to address issues such as the opioid epidemic, mental health problems, and childhood obesity.

During his confirmation hearing, Democratic senators had expressed concerns that the Trump administration was showing a lack of respect for science. They pressed Adams to commit to putting science before politics.

Similar to his response at the hearing, Adams said Tuesday he’s committed to letting the science lead him to facilitating locally-led solutions to difficult health problems.

“To borrow a phrase from our president,” Adams said, “let’s all work together to make American health great again.”

Contact Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.