"In some ways, the whole discussion now about universal or game-changing [flu] vaccine has somewhat shifted the landscape. Because now people are going to say, 'Wait a minute. Am I going to invest in an intermediate stage of vaccine production … and do this kind of fix on the current vaccine as an intermediate stage or interim stage?' "
"Remember the entire world will be in the soup at the same time. The United States and other developed countries will not be sending public health first responders and medical supplies to developing countries in response to the pandemic."
"Who is going to pay for [a universal flu vaccine], given that the cost of research and development may mean the vaccine will be substantially more expensive than what we already have? What company will embrace that?"
"The work is very concerning in terms of the implications for what H7N9 might do in the days ahead regarding human infection. The whole world is worried about it."
"At the top of our crisis agenda are 2 frightening scenarios: the rapidly emerging consequences of a 1918-like influenza pandemic and the slow-moving tsunami of antimicrobial drug resistance."
"We cannot ensure domestic preparedness without ensuring that global infectious disease threats are contained at the source before they reach the United States."
“If anything that happens to disrupt the supply [of 30 crucial medical items produced offshore], we wouldn’t have any of it. We would suddenly see a tremendous amount of collateral damage. The [pandemic] flu will accentuate all of the other health problems that we have."
"These things cycle and so Zika may have a reduced number of cases but as we see with other viruses, it's going to come back and there is still a very large part of the world that is vulnerable."
"I am absolutely certain that we are going to see [a coronavirus] making its way to the Horn of Africa and it is going to get into the camels there; all the camel traffic is basically from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Once MERS or a MERS-like virus infects 7 million camels in Somalia, we're going to see an outbreak take off and it will be devastating."
"In 2012, when I published a paper on the limited effectiveness of flu vaccines and said how their availability will always be very limited during a pandemic, there were people who compared me to Andrew Wakefield and the measles vaccine and that I was somehow undermining the whole system. . . . That concept is now actually a norm because people no longer disagree with the fact that we have challenges with our current flu vaccines"
"I think that this [Ebola vaccine] public-private partnership is somewhat broken. If we were really looking to prevent Ebola, we would have an African-prepared environment for Ebola. Every healthcare worker in any area of Africa that might experience a spillover would be vaccinated or offered a vaccine."
"Just like antimicrobial resistance, a vaccine to prevent pandemic influenza is majorly underfunded because both of these are not a crisis that we can yet see or feel. I think that’s the mindset we have to get away from. It would be like trying to secure all of your military equipment and all your troops the week after the war is declared."
"The mutation that potentially caused this health outcome in humans is occurring in a [Zika] virus where additional mutations could still occur, which could bring us other new health challenges,"
"What this study really means is that if you have an area with a Zika outbreak in 2013 or 2014, the Zika you see in 2017 could be a different virus. The speed at which mutation changes in the virus occur completely change the public health impact of the virus."
"We know that Zika did not cause microcephaly or neurological problems until 2014 or so. So the only conclusion is either people changed or the virus changed."
