Osterholm Quotes

"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 epidemiology suggests unrecognized person-to-person cases."

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

"What I do know for certain, based on these studies, that if I get vaccinated now and major flu activity is in January or February, I may have no protection left."

"We all as a global public health community have a right to know what's being done to stop these ongoing transmissions because this could be in our lap tomorrow."

“This is not based on science, and it’s dangerous . . . it’s just quackery.”

"This thing should have been solved a month ago."

“This one is very solvable. This is one of the easy ones. . . . If this same number of cases had happened in Minnesota as happened in Iowa, this would have been solved weeks ago.”

"Those of us who have spent a lifetime in public health can see when an investigation is languishing and not finding answers, and it really does potentially pose risks to the public’s health."

"There is a lot of room in between 'don't worry' and 'on the brink of disaster.' "

"[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."

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

“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?"

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

"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.”

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