Osterholm Quotes

"We're now at the second level of concern. The third level could happen tomorrow.”

"H7N9 is blowing right by H5N1. I’m really worried about that."

"We're in a 'stay tuned' moment right now. If that happens [mutation for easy H7N9 human spread], then bets are off. It's potential pandemic time."

"We don't know yet if there's an infectious cloud that comes off the bird markets that can infect nearby humans."

"The psychology of influenza vaccination uptake is sometimes almost as complex as the disease itself."

"This doesn't fundamentally change the risk picture for H5N1 around the world."

"It surely gives us reason to believe that ... camel infections could be a very important source of human infection."

"Based on what we're seeing so far, this year will be a very different picture than last year . . . we fully expect to see many more cases in younger children and middle-aged adults."

"Obviously it's never too late to do these studies . . . but again it begs the question why they weren't done six or seven months ago."

"His impact on foodborne disease epidemiology will not stop because of his death."

"We have to be careful about assuming that this is just in camels. If camels can be infected then it's very likely that other domestic animals can be infected as well."

"It's early, premature deaths that we should be in a position of preventing. And this is what this pandemic pointed out — that this was not seasonal flu."

"A death in an 82-year-old is very different than in a healthy 21-year-old female who happened to be pregnant."

"It's like putting a 1940s transmission in a 2014 car."

"The eggs should be long gone."

“I’m very high on hand washing. I just think the attributable prevention factor for flu has been oversold.”

"If the primary body fluid involved with transmitting [bat] coronaviruses to other animal species or humans is feces, the question becomes: How often is that likely to occur?"

"Influenza is virtually in a class by itself. Many other agents worked on within BSL-4 labs don’t have that transmissibility that we see with influenza."

"It's just a matter of time before one of the satellite [MERS] cases ends up in an area where surveillance and infection control are not like they are in Europe, and we have the potential of a large event somewhere else in the world."

"The fact that we have such incomplete information a year into this is just inexcusable."