Surgeon General Jerome Adams sought to calm concerns about President Trump catching the coronavirus by claiming the 73-year-old commander in chief is in better health than him.
“Speaking of being at risk, the president, he sleeps less than I do, and he’s healthier than what I am,” Adams, who is in his mid-40s, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
On Saturday, Trump told reporters he was “not concerned at all” about being exposed to the coronavirus after an attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference tested positive for the virus.
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, said Sunday he had “incidental contact” with the infected attendee. Schlapp, who shook Trump’s hand on stage, said the person was not in attendance on the day Trump gave remarks. He added that both he and Trump sanitized their hands during the conference.
Adams, a public health expert, declined to say Trump and his 2020 rivals Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders should stop traveling amid the outbreak and the risk it poses to older adults.
“If people are going to go out there, we want them to be extra cautious. We want them to wash their hands frequently. And I was with the president on Friday. And I just said, ‘Sir, when is the last time you have washed your hands?’ And he said, ‘I washed my hands just a few minutes ago,” Adams explained.
Trump has had three medical checkups since entering the White House. The results of his physical last year showed Trump was obese, gaining 4 pounds since his first medical exam as president in 2018. His dosage of rosuvastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug, had also been increased.
