"[A global MERS outbreak] may never happen. [But] it could happen tomorrow. It could happen this afternoon. And I think there's clearly enough data to support that."

"You have to take the pandemic potential with a great degree of seriousness."

"There is either an animal reservoir that is widespread and we are not aware of it, or there is substantial unrecognized human-to-human transmission of this virus. Either way, this is a problem."

“It’s a dot, and it takes two dots to make a line. If we keep getting more information, more dots, we can talk about a trend.”

"The issue that we all worry about is what happens if this gets into a country that doesn’t have the same level of infection control capability in a health-care setting?"

"As long as it is around, it has every opportunity at the genetic roulette table to turn into something more dangerous."

"The global public health community remains woefully underprepared for an effective vaccine response to a pandemic."

“The world as a whole must invest in a new generation of effective influenza and coronavirus vaccines.”

“Each time one of these viruses infects a human or even another mammal, it’s one more throw at the genetic roulette table.”

“Public health has a responsibility to be very frank and honest on how well influenza vaccines are working”

“Dating back to Hippocrates, influenza has been one of the ‘lion kings’ of infectious diseases.”

"It's now abundantly clear we all need the boosters."