Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks at Grand Opening Ceremony for RPI and ISMMS's Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine

March 29, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams: We heard the scientific approach to this amazing marriage of two great institutions, and I just want to lean into the humanistic aspect of it. How many times have we watched our loved ones go through a chronic disease? How many times have we sat back and saw how it impacts the family, particularly when the person is a primary caregiver, was a newborn child? We are at the precipice of an 1883 moment. Today, we opened the Brooklyn Bridge and allowed two islands to be connected. That's where we are in science and medicine.

We are moving away from the old theories and concepts of generalizing the impacts of these chronic diseases and understanding the individual aspects of them. Just as we have individual fingerprints that's unique to who we are, so too is our body makeup. The thoughts of microbiomes and neuroplasticity of the brain and neuron connections and how various medicines impact us in a unique way is beyond imagination where we are about to go. But just like in that 1883, some people stepped on that bridge with interpretation and fear, unsure of what happened when they walked across. Mount Sinai and RPI is holding our hands and telling us it's going to be all right. It's going to be all right.

When you look at what Andrew Kimball, the governor, and this administration did with the Kips Bay Project on First Avenue, you combine it with what's happening now on 11th Avenue. There's something unique that's about to give birth to in this city. We're going to take these tough challenges. And now Ms. Jones and Little Bobby and our grandparents are not going to be fearful when they hear some of the diagnosis. They're going to be hopeful. The opportunity is here. Mankind and womankind and humankind is an amazing creation. We have been fearful of that creation for far too long.

Now, to draw on my own personal experience, diagnosed with severe diabetes, losing my sight, told I would be blind in a year, losing some fingers and toes, and merely because I went beyond of living with a chronic disease and moved into the uncomfortable zone of reversing a chronic disease. It opened up the opportunities. We're entering the universe of reversal and prevention and proper diagnosis. How exciting could that be? We did not think we would see this day in our lifetime. Because of this partnership, not only are we going to see it in our lifetime, we are going to extend our lifetime, and I'm looking forward to this and I'm happy. I was not there in 1883, but I'm here in 2023. Thank you.