Osterholm Quotes

"This is a disease [COVID-19] that we will be studying for decades and decades to come, just by the very nature of its unique presentations, all the different organs it affected, how it impacted on our immune systems and what then happened because of the dysfunction of our immune systems brought on by this virus.

"I fear that there has been this sense that kids just won't get infected or don't get infected [with SARS-CoV-2] in the same way as adults and that, therefore, they're almost like a bubbled population....There will be transmission. What we have to do is accept that now and include that in our plans."

"We don't understand what is happening in terms of why some people shed more of the [SARS-CoV-2] virus than others....Some people are in the term, 'super spreaders,' and it is never just the individual but the environment as well."

"I still believe distancing is by far the most important aspect of protecting oneself from this [SARS-CoV-2] virus. Aerosols ... surely have even more implications in terms of distance, just because of how far they can travel, but then how infectious are they — how much virus is there?"

"That old adage, you don't know what you have until you lose it...I think now people are taking an inventory of all the things that we are involved in through the WHO that surely helps the world, but also helps us."

"This country has to come to grips with: What is it that we're willing to accept? And I think if we leave it up to every governor, I think that is short-sighted. We need a national consensus of what are we trying to do. And then each state can … tailor it to what fits them. But right now, we don't have a national consensus."

"We have a lot more to go. So anyone who talks about a [coronavirus] peak today doesn’t understand that we have an incredible journey ahead of us yet.”

"I'm actually of the mind right now, I think this [COVID-19] is more like a forest fire. I don't think that this is going to slow down. I'm not sure that the influenza analogy applies anymore. I think that wherever there is wood to burn, this fire is going to burn. And right now we have a lot of susceptible people."

"We will all know somebody — we will all love somebody — who will die from this disease....Eventually there won't be any blue states or red states. There won't be any blue cities or red rural areas. It'll all be COVID colored."

"We have to take the information that we get from this [coronavirus] pandemic—all aspects of it—and ask ourselves, much like the National Transportation Safety Board takes the black box from a crashed airplane: What can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again?"

"Do we think reopening is going to increase [COVID-19] cases? Sure should. But we have examples of states where it hasn't happened...We don't really know what is actually making the virus move like it is right now in some states and not others."

"At most, perhaps 5% of people have been infected (with SARS-CoV-2)....If all that pain, suffering and economic destruction got us to 5%, what will it take to get us to 60%? That's a sobering thought. All of that suffering and death is just getting started. People haven't quite got that yet.”

"My whole challenge has not been about whether you wear a mask or not...I’ll throw the kitchen sink at this if it will help. The challenge is, ‘How well do they work?’ so that the public knows what level of protection they’re getting.”

"We've almost seen a mind-set that if a little contact tracing is good, a lot more must be better....We’re saying, 'No that's not true.'"

"Given previous influenza pandemics, and this not an influenza virus so we don't know for certain it will act like that, but if it did, by far the second wave was the worst one of each of the pandemics....A second wave (of COVID-19) in late summer or early fall that lasts three or four months could make everything we've experience so far seem mild."

"We want smart [SARS-CoV-2] testing. You want the right population and the right person in that population to be tested at the right time, with the right test, with the right result and the right outcome for what you're going to use that test result for. It's about being strategic."

"We’re so focused on numbers of people being tested [for COVID-19], and we are not focusing on what the accomplishment of that testing is all about."

"If you’re gonna ring a bell, you’d better have a way to unring it....I don’t see anybody right now elaborating on, well, what happens if [COVID-19] cases go up four-fold in a two-week period? Will we reestablish these measures that we’ve had in place?"

"You can't be in lockdown for 18 months. We'll destroy society as we know it, and we don't know what we'll accomplish with it....We can't just let the virus go. Lots of people will die and it'll shut down our health system, not just for COVID patients, but for anyone with a health problem. What we need is a plan."

"We all have to confront the fact there’s not a magic bullet, short of a vaccine, that’s going to make this [COVID-19] go away....We’re going to be living with it. And we’re not having that discussion at all."