Surgeon general's COVID plea gets personal with wife's cancer hospitalization

For months, Dr. Jerome Adams has been one of the most public faces in the fight against coronavirus, offering Americans sage advice and regular data as the U.S. surgeon general.

But on New Year's Eve, his pitch for Americans to buckle down and take precautions such as mask wearing during the latest wave of the pandemic took a personal turn with his wife's hospitalization for complications from cancer treatment.

"My wife is being admitted to the hospital due to complications w/ her cancer treatment," he tweeted on New Year's Eve. "I’m not allowed to see her due to #COVID19 restrictions, & I’m hoping she doesn’t have to spend New Year’s in a hallway because the beds are full. What you do matters, even beyond COVID."

His pitch included a meme advocating masks that declared "wearing is caring."

Lacey Adams, the surgeon general's wife, wrote about her decade-long battle with melanoma in Women's Health last year, revealing how a routine checkup in 2009 turned her world upside down. 

Medical professionals have expressed concerns that COVID-19 has both slowed cancer screenings and complicated treatments for existing patients.

"In March-July 2020 in comparison to 2019 there is a substantial decrease in cancer screening, biopsies, surgery, office visits, and therapy with variation by cancer type and site of service," the prestigious JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics medical journal wrote in a recent article.