Osterholm Quotes

"Don’t stop hunting; please don’t stop hunting. If we did not end up having hunting in these areas, it [CWD] would only become a bigger problem. But if you are in an area like that [where CWD has been detected], we do think it's really important that you get the animal tested."

"Is there evidence of CWD in that area? For the vast majority of Minnesota, we have no evidence of CWD in wild deer."

"It's fair to say Minnesota has done an incredible job [on CWD] on a relative lack of resources. This last legislative session did provide some additional resources, but it's one where we need federal activity and support soon. I mean, right now."

"That's why the [CIDRAP] website we have is such an important resource because it really is the one resource for current comprehensive and authoritative information on CWD for the world."

"Studies that were done 5 to 7 years ago looking at the potential for the transmission of this [CWD] prion to humans found, in many cases, at least the initial lab data didn't support that might happen. Those were well-done studies – really well-done studies. The problem is we have new strains today; they've emerged."

"It has to give us pause at this point to say, 'Yes, could it [CWD infection in humans] happen? It might, we don't know.' But it surely is more than just a theoretical risk."

"The [CWD] prions that are in these deer are of note in that they're changing, they're constantly mutating. In the mad cow situation, the prion was primarily in the ... brain and the spinal cord. Here in these deer ... there also are prions located in the lymphatic system; they're actually right in the muscle."

"If you look at Yemen, you look at Somalia, you look at Syria, you look at what's going on in Myanmar, they are countries under siege or failed states. This is what we need to expect."

"Sao Paulo had very little Zika activity — that's a city that is ripe for a major epidemic. It's just a matter of the wrong mosquito infecting the wrong population, and then you've got an epidemic."

"One little bottlecap in a ditch can serve as a wonderful breeding site for mosquitoes like this."

"When it comes to landfills and [deer] carcass disposal, scalability is a huge issue that needs to be addressed. How do we — in a CWD positive area — best dispose of these carcasses? There's a lot more work that needs to be done."

"Even though we have all these new modern technologies and have wealth around the world, we still are very vulnerable to the infectious agents and we've done very little to really right the ship and make us better prepared."

"Given the longer hold times of these kids ... this is a perfect recipe for an influenza outbreak in the kids, which will in turn seed the adult population, both detainees and workers, for a much higher risk of influenza."

"Hunters are a valuable part of herd management of [deer] to help reduce more animal contact that could spread chronic wasting disease. We have every reason to support hunting; we just want to make sure the animals that are killed are safe to eat."

"You're not only protecting the kids for themselves, but you're also helping protect those communities where those kids are located. I can guarantee you that if influenza virus gets into a facility where there are a number of young children not previously vaccinated or who have not had influenza in the last several years, you're going to see a lot of influenza activity."

"I think the message here is that although CWD is a real concern, we can manage it in terms of human risk by developing the testing and making it available. ... And we need national leadership badly."

"We need to do hunter education as to why they should be testing their animals, and we need to devise new and better [CWD] tests. That’s the kind of research that we need to support."

"[CWD is] a very important economic issue. Hunting in Minnesota [contributes] an estimated $1 billion to the state’s economy. That’s just one state"

"We don’t know what the risk [of CWD transmitting to humans] is, but I would never tell you it’s zero. I’m not going to tell you it’s going to happen tomorrow, but at the same time, having been through BSE [bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or 'mad cow'] and remembering how all those people provided all those assurances only to be proven wrong 10 years later, I worry about it."

"So today we can take no comfort in having no human [CWD] cases yet. That doesn’t tell us anything. If you have a [prion] disease, you may have a 10-or-more-year incubation period.…Also, the prions continue to change."