Transcript: Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Aug. 10, 2025

The following is the transcription of an interview with Dr. Jerome Adams, the former American general surgeon during the first term of President Trump, who was broadcast on “Face The Nation With Margaret Brennan” on August 10, 2025.

Margaret Brennan: We are now turning to the former general surgeon, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served in the first Trump administration. Welcome back to the nation.

Former American surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams: Thank you, Margaret.

Margaret Brennan: I want to ask you questions about this tragic set on Friday in Atlanta. I understand that there were at least four CDC buildings that were slaughtered, and our colleagues report that the investigators are considering the motivations, including the suspect thought that he was sick after the vaccine coded. What do you do with the incident itself, as well as the broader impact on health workers in the field of the CDC?

Dr. Adams: Yes. Well, first of all, on behalf of the American people, I would like to thank the dedicated professionals of the CDC and to all public and medical workers across this country. And I also want to honor the officer David Rose who made the ultimate sacrifice while protecting these families and the people who worked at the CDC. My sincere condolences go to family, friends and colleagues. And finally, I want to be clear, because our secretary in HHS was not. Violence is never the answer, regardless of your level of frustration or anger with the system. We must find better more peaceful means to express our concerns and work towards solutions. Now, Margaret, you quickly asked questions about the secretary and how you react to a crisis defines a leader, and frankly, secretary Kennedy failed during his first major test in this regard. It took him more than 18 hours to issue a lukewarm response to these horrible shootings, and that does not even consider how his inflammatory rhetoric in the past has really contributed to many of what is happening.

Margaret Brennan: These are strong words. I mean, the secretary has published a statement saying that no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others. Do you think he needs to condemn this shooter and his alleged motivations more directly? I mean, to be fair, there has been a lot of rhetoric angry with health officials for years now. Why do you think the secretary himself needs to remedy it?

Dr. Adams: Well, the secretary, before considering presenting himself to the presidency or to the secretary, was involved in an epidemic of American Samoa where 83 people died, more than 70 children, in response to an epidemic of measles, that local officials on the ground said that he had helped to ignite. As president, he said, I will drain the sump of the CDC and hold responsible people, while he presented himself to the presidency, he made this statement last year. Unfortunately, someone beat her to try to keep people responsible. And once again, as secretary of the HHS, it took him 18 hours to respond to this shooting, and he still has not unequivocally condemned violence. He said no one should be injured during his work to protect the public. There is a there, Margaret. If you don’t think people work to protect the public, it means that it is normal to commit violence, at least in the eyes of some people. Dr Vinay Prasad, who The Lieutenant-Secretary of the HHS, Kennedy, said: I do not believe in forgiveness because in my opinion, these pieces of these pieces of, and he said that human excrement always lie. So I am upset. I am upset because the people of the CDC called me while it was happening, asking for a blanket that they could not obtain from their secretary.

Margaret Brennan: What did they ask you to do?

Dr. Adams: They asked me to make a public declaration because they felt attacked. They didn’t know if it was going to continue. They were afraid, and they wanted someone, someone who, according to him, had a public voice to go there and say that it is bad. Violence is wrong. This is not the answer.

Margaret Brennan: Well, absolutely, I think we all want to pay attention to the language we use and specify, certainly on this program. And I think what you were referring to is a bit of what secretary Kennedy said that he was presidential candidate. But even in power, the FDA commissioner for this program said that he had written an article “why people don’t trust the CDC”. The secretary himself said in the past, the CDC is a sump of corruption. You, to be clear, want the leaders of our health institutions to come out and say they trust CDC now?

Dr. Adams: Exactly. I wrote a recent editorial which is in Stat News where I spoke. As leaders, we must be responsible for what we say and how we say it. We must understand that people listen to. And when you call the CDC a sump, when you say that I will hold responsible people, when you make complaints that have been proven repeatedly on the safety and efficiency of vaccines, which can cause unforeseen consequences. And so even if I do not know the secretary Kennedy personally, and that I do not want to make, to make affirmations on his character, I would say that as a function of his actions and his rhetoric that he is, he adds, he attracts the flames which led to situations as we have seen at the CDC.

Margaret Brennan: I want to ask you questions about health policy, because a few days earlier, secretary Kennedy announced that the United States would interrupt $ 500 million for vaccine research on this technology known as mRNA. You know this very well because it was used during the Warp Speed operation to quickly get this cocvid vaccine. Secretary Kennedy said, however, mRNA vaccines cite: “Do not work against higher respiratory tract infections.” Do you know what he means? And what does this research stop for pandemic preparations?

Dr. Adams: Well, it’s just not true. We know that, according to the most conservative estimates, more than 2 million lives have been saved due to mRNA technology. This helped us develop COVVI-19 vaccines in record time. And it is, frankly, the greatest success of President Trump. He is fascinating for me that in this conversation of knowing if he should receive the Nobel Prize for something, the thing for which he should be considered for the Nobel Prize, his health secretary tries to undermine. For people who may not be familiar, however, Margaret, mrnm means Messenger mRNM, it is a natural molecule that is in all our bodies. It’s like a recipe card that tells your body how to make a protein. And this idea, once again, helps us to develop vaccines and new treatments for everything, cancer, melanoma, that my wife has, in HIV, to better vaccines against flu and Zika. These are advances that will not happen now. People will die because we reduce short funding for this technology.

Margaret Brennan: It is interesting to talk about the great success of President Trump there, because it was asked by my colleague, Nancy Cordes, of operation Warp Speed, and that is what he said this week. Listen.

Donald Trump: Operation Warp Speed was, whether you are republican or democrat, considered one of the most incredible things ever done in this country. The efficiency, the way it was done, the distribution, all about this, was incredible.

Margaret Brennan: What would have happened in 2020 if we had no mRNA vaccines?

Dr. Adams: If we didn’t have mrnm vaccines, the best experts at the time, Bill Gates, Tony Fauci, said that it would have taken at least 18 to 24 months additional to get a vaccine. The record before that, Margaret, was six years to get a vaccine using the technology that secretary Kennedy said he wanted to come back, whole virus technology. And so, as I mentioned, by the most conservative estimates, at least 2 million lives have been saved. Many people say that up to 20 million lives have been saved due to vaccines. This is the greatest success of President Trump, bar None.

Margaret Brennan: Senator Bill Cassidy, who, I think you know, republican, doctor, he voted for the confirmation of secretary Kennedy, said that he was “unhappy that the secretary canceled half a billion work dollars, wasting the money which is already invested”, in other words, not to recover it. And he said it “conceded this important technology to China”. Here is the thing, secretary Kennedy said, mn- mn- excuse me, secretary Kennedy said that this technology was useful against cancers. Can you have it in both directions? Can you stop the investment while taking the parts of it and somehow somehow preserving?

Dr. Adams: Well, this is an excellent question, and this is absolutely the case that you cannot denigrate mRNA technology. Even if you are developing new technology for other areas, people will not trust him. There is none – they will not take it. And the functioning of research is that a large part of what we have learned about mRNA technology and the development of cocvid vaccines have led to excitement, innovation, progress, which now present cancer opportunities. This is likely to block progress in most of the most promising areas of modern medicine.

Margaret Brennan: Dr Adams, thank you for your time this morning.

Dr. Adams: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And if you have any questions about the vaccines, tell your doctor, because unfortunately, our current secretary does not disseminate information that is well informed, which is appropriate, and which does not stir up the flames which cause situations as occurred at the CDC.

Margaret Brennan: Dr Adams, I appreciate your time. We will come back in a moment.