The Osterholm Quotes
"It's just a matter of time before one of the satellite [MERS] cases ends up in an area where surveillance and infection control are not like they are in Europe, and we have the potential of a large event somewhere else in the world," Wall Street Journal, Sep 24, 2013
"The fact that we have such incomplete information a year into this is just inexcusable." NPR, Sep 20, 2013, regarding MERS outbreak
"The epidemiology suggests unrecognized person-to-person cases." NPR, Sep 20, 2013, on MERS cases in Saudi Arabia
"What I do know for certain, based on these studies, that if I get vaccinated now and major flu activity is in January or February, I may have no protection left." WCCO News, Sep 17, 2013, referring to 2013 studies showing within-season waning immunity for the influenza vaccine
"We all as a global public health community have a right to know what's being done to stop these ongoing transmissions because this could be in our lap tomorrow." Canadian Press, Sep 16, 2013, on the lack of forthcoming information on MERS
“This is not based on science, and it’s dangerous . . . it’s just quackery.” WCCO News, Aug 19, 2013, in regard to prolonged treatment for so-called chronic Lyme disease
"This thing should have been solved a month ago." USA Today, Aug 2, 2013, on Cyclospora investigation
“This one is very solvable. This is one of the easy ones. . . . If this same number of cases had happened in Minnesota as happened in Iowa, this would have been solved weeks ago.” Des Moines Register, Jul 27, 2013, on Cyclospora investigation
"Those of us who have spent a lifetime in public health can see when an investigation is languishing and not finding answers, and it really does potentially pose risks to the public’s health." Food Safety News, Jul 25, 2013, on Cyclospora outbreak investigation
"There is a lot of room in between 'don't worry' and 'on the brink of disaster.' " ScienceInsider, Jul 17, 2013, on the WHO's limited choices on whether or not to declare a global public health emergency
"[A global MERS outbreak] may never happen. [But] it could happen tomorrow. It could happen this afternoon. And I think there's clearly enough data to support that." Canadian Press, Jul 16, 2013
"You have to take the pandemic potential with a great degree of seriousness." CIDRAP News, Jul 10, 2013, on new H7N9 transmissibility study
"There is either an animal reservoir that is widespread and we are not aware of it, or there is substantial unrecognized human-to-human transmission of this virus. Either way, this is a problem." ScienceInsider, Jul 5, 2013, on MERS-CoV
“It’s a dot, and it takes two dots to make a line. If we keep getting more information, more dots, we can talk about a trend.” Bloomberg News, Jun 19, 2013, on MERS-CoV Saudi hospital report
"The issue that we all worry about is what happens if this gets into a country that doesn’t have the same level of infection control capability in a health-care setting?" Canadian Press, Jun 19, 2013, on MERS-CoV
"As long as it is around, it has every opportunity at the genetic roulette table to turn into something more dangerous." Associated Press, Jun 19, 2013, on MERS-CoV
"The global public health community remains woefully underprepared for an effective vaccine response to a pandemic." JAMA, May 9, 2013, with colleagues
“The world as a whole must invest in a new generation of effective influenza and coronavirus vaccines.” New York Times, May 9, 2013
“Each time one of these viruses infects a human or even another mammal, it’s one more throw at the genetic roulette table.” New York Times, May 9, 2013, on H7N9 flu and MERS-CoV
“Public health has a responsibility to be very frank and honest on how well influenza vaccines are working” NBC Nightly News, Feb 21, 2013
“Dating back to Hippocrates, influenza has been one of the ‘lion kings’ of infectious diseases.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug 26, 2012
