Osterholm Quotes

"Even areas that [stemmed their COVID-19 outbreaks] so well originally as people thought now are realizing that unless you can completely suppress this virus, it’s gonna come back, and it’s gonna keep coming back as long as you have susceptible people."

"I think many of us think that [China is] in part experiencing a resurgence [in COVID-19 cases] as they're opening up their economy again, but they don't want anybody to know it."

"It's what we predicted. Now we just have to get through this. We need a [COVID-19 response] plan; we need a way to understand how we don't shut down the world. We can't shut down the economy."

"We're beginning to see data out of New York where there's a number of [COVID-19] cases in the 30, 40, and 50-year-old age group that are very severe. People are dying and requiring extensive intensive-care medicine requirements, and that is among those who are obese."

"More than anything, what the United States needs right now is for the president to undertake an intellectual Manhattan Project: gather the best minds in public health, medicine, medical ethics, catastrophe preparedness and response; political leadership; and private-sector manufacturing and the pharmaceutical industry."

"No one planned on the whole world experiencing a health conflagration of this magnitude at once, with the need to test many millions of people at the same time [for COVID-19]. Political leaders and talking heads should stop proffering the widespread-testing option; it simply won’t be available."

"In three to four weeks, there will be a major shortage of chemical reagents for coronavirus testing, the result of limited production capacity, compounded by the collapse of global supply chains when the epidemic closed down manufacturing in China for weeks."

"We are literally within three to four weeks into the complete implosion of [COVID-19] testing in this country. So don't plan an extensive national effort around testing, only to find out in a couple of weeks we can't even do it."

"Someone has to collect the garbage, deliver the foods and medicines, and keep basic services running, no matter what. We are going to have to learn to live with this [COVID-19] virus to some degree, until there is a vaccine — no matter what the data shows. Otherwise, there is no economy."

This virus will find everyone. It may start in the cities, but I can tell you that it is going to hit central Minnesota. Don’t be on the wrong side of this. This is all of us against the virus, not red states versus blue states. And if we all don’t act now, one day it will just be one big [COVID-19] fire."

"We have to figure out now how we’re going to get these hospitals through, not just today, not this week, not next week, but potentially months of being under siege with these [COVID-19] cases."

"It could take weeks for some places to see substantial increases. If we are successful in limiting transmission through the mitigation strategies, social distancing, then that should bring the numbers down. We'll just have to wait and see."

"We are all in the same COVID virus soup right now. No health care organization in the country is well suited, is well prepared to respond to this in terms of stockpiles of protective equipment."

"They're manufacturing as many N95 respirators as they possibly can. The suppliers are running 100% of the time. It's just that we never stockpiled anything. We all counted on just-in-time use. Suddenly when they put in an order of 50,000 rather than 5,000, all that capacity becomes terribly inadequate for the need."

"There is a real downside to [closing schools]. If we lose 20% of our nurses or any of the occupational areas we have in healthcare, this could add a really devastating impact on our delivery of healthcare during the middle of this pandemic situation."

"We're in a fight against this virus. We don't have time for double talk. We need straight talk."

"There are two kinds of people in this country: those who are in quarantine and those who will be soon.... I think the challenges are many, but I feel like we're poised to respond [to COVID-19]."

"On the [COVID-19) testing issue, this is one of our darkest moments in public health. I can't remember a time we've failed to do what we should have done. When South Korea can test more people in one day than we've been able to test in eight weeks, that should tell you we have a problem."

"If they're all getting infected and getting sick, we lose one of the most important ways to stop people from dying."

"You can't assume anymore that people are not capable of infecting you. In many cases they won't even know they're infected. [They] have to kind of assume the rest of the world is a coronavirus soup. If I don't want to end up swimming in that bowl, I need to find another place on the plate."