Osterholm Quotes

"The good news, in a sense, is that it is hantavirus and not another coronavirus or an influenza virus. This is one that has very limited ability to be transmitted person to person. In fact, it’s a rare exception. And so, we have no question about the fact that this really is on the end of its run right now."

"It [vaccine shared decision-making directive] creates doubt if you now have to discuss it with your doctor."

“If the committee [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] intends to revisit vaccine safety questions, it has an obligation to do so transparently and rigorously. Given past misstatements, members do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.”

"Right now, we're seeing on a global basis a retrenchment in vaccine research and development, because the United States is in fact the 800-pound gorilla in the corner that really drives how vaccines are purchased, how they're used."

"Respiratory viruses hospitalize and kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and vaccine decisions must be guided by facts, not politics or ideology."

“It’s not too late to get your flu shot. It doesn’t guarantee that you still won’t get sick, but it surely is a big improvement on what the otherwise outcome could be, of either being seriously ill or dying.”

"A delay [in administering the hepatitis B, or HBV, vaccine] will needlessly endanger the health of America’s children, putting more of them at risk of HBV infection."

"What Secretary Kennedy has done is an attempt to basically reduce the use of vaccines, if not eliminate in many cases. He does that by creating doubt in the minds of the public.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website change suggesting uncertainty about whether vaccines cause autism "signals that truth carries no weight in the current and future discussions on vaccines. Children will die."

“I wouldn’t call the code yet, but I think the patient’s not looking real good," [on the likelihood of the United States losing its measles-elimination status in January].

"What we're doing [Vaccine Integrity Project] is just trying to handle one small part of what ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] did and to help make that available to anyone who’s going to consider making a vaccine recommendation."

"With COVID-19, we saw what happens when we're not prepared, with challenges such as early delays in getting test kits, shortages of effective respiratory protection, and communication missteps that confused the public and resulted in a loss of trust that will be hard to regain." 

"This is not business as usual anymore, but it doesn't mean that we have to sit back and take it."

"The pandemic clock is ticking. I would still say the most likely source is going to be a coronavirus. Is it five years? Ten years? I don’t know, but I can say with certainty: I believe it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time."

"Given what is happening in the current Administration with vaccines, I think we are in free fall. We are in worse shape now than we were literally before the COVID pandemic. No one in the White House is in charge of leading the country through the potential next hit from an infectious agent, which could be more deadly than if somebody launched a physical war against us on our own shores."

The Vaccine Integrity Project's ultimate goal is "to exist for the least amount of time possible. We can't wait for CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to be restored to its previous level of excellence."

"Sadly, the ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] we knew has been hijacked and is today an ideological body and no longer a scientific one.”

"We have basically destroyed what capacity we had to respond to a pandemic. The office that normally did this work in the White House has been totally disbanded."

"As a parent or a grandparent, I wouldn’t want my kids to go into Florida in the years ahead, to go to Walt Disney World, or any place like that, because Florida’s going to become a hotbed of [infectious disease] transmission by eliminating this particular [school vaccine] mandate."

"Where there was consistent use of N95 masks [against COVID-19], protection was remarkable. But a lot of the studies never really measured effective use. Look at the plastic shields at grocery stores. They were useless. We spent millions and millions of dollars doing that, and the 6 feet thing was the same. Useless."