Osterholm Quotes

"The challenge is, we don't understand yet what this virus still has in store for us. If you've got subvariants that can evade immune protection from previous infections and you've got waning immunity—that could set us up for a whole new set of circumstances."

“This is not the same [SARS-CoV-2] virus we dealt with back in January of 2020. It’s evolved every time we put pressure on it. We get more immunity in people, and it finds a way to get around immunity. Then it gets more infectious.”

“We’re now trying to treat [COVID] like a seasonal influenza and it’s just not yet.”

“We have so little experience with coronaviruses and how they play out. We’re kind of in limbo land right now.”

"Eradication is a very sacred word in public health; to eradicate means it is gone permanently, and the only virus we have done that with so far is smallpox."

"Is it hard to get people vaccinated when people are saying it's [COVID's] all over with? Absolutely. I wish that [President Joe Biden's statement] hadn't happened."

“We’ve had two million [COVID-19] cases reported over the last 28 days, and we know underreporting is substantial. [COVID] continues to be the No. 4 cause of death in the country.”

"Protection from the flu virus vaccine wears off over time, as much as 18% per month. So if we were to see the flu season emerge in January and February, those vaccinated in September may only have a limited amount of protection left. If possible, we really like to see people getting a flu shot in October or early November if there is no flu activity in the community."

"COVID right now is the number four cause of death in this country, and everyone is acting as if it's done and it's over with. It's not."

"COVID right now is the number four cause of death in this country, and everyone is acting as if it's done and it's over with. It's not."

"The most important message—again—is get it [new COVID-19 vaccine booster]. If it's been at least 4 months since you've been vaccinated before, you need it right now. With the new vaccine, you can get it as early as 2 months after the last dose; I think waiting a little bit longer is better."

“I don’t see the urgency here. We don’t have data to support that the [newly Food and Drug Administration-authorized] BA.4/BA.5 vaccine is superior.”

"The vast majority of health departments that I've talked to in the last week are feeling fortunate if they can get four [monkeypox vaccine] doses out of a vial, and in some cases three," versus the five doses the US Food and Drug Administration said could be derived for intradermal injection.

"This new [COVID-19] vaccine that we are talking about is going to have the old vaccine in it. Plus, it's going to have the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants in it. The data is clear and compelling that the additional doses do reduce serious illness, hospitalization, and death. So I will be very interested to see how many people actually take up these vaccines."

"If this [recently announced US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reforms] were on a scale of 1 to 10, this is about a 12."

"When Omicron first came, we had this huge peak, but once we got to the BA.4, BA.5 predominance in early summer, we've been just flat. It's like a high plateau, if you look at hospitalizations, you look at deaths, the two major data pieces we can use to try to illustrate what's going on in the community. It's amazing to see how flat it's been, a few percent up and a few percent down week from week to week."

"I commend CDC for taking this [reorganization] on. But if you could really do a wonderful job of fixing the CDC challenges, that’s only fixing a part of the problem in this country. So much of this is still at the state and local health departments."

“What we are trying to do basically is build the aircraft, including the outside, at 30,000 feet right now," on failure to conduct more research on monkeypox vaccine in endemic countries in Africa.

“The current [COVID-19] vaccines… are only preventing limited infection, and they are not stopping much of the transmission, we know that,” Osterholm said. “But at the same time, they are very effective, very effective in reducing serious illness, hospitalization, and death.”

“We don’t yet have the data to know how effectively an intradermal-administered [monkeypox] vaccination will protect immunocompromised persons," referring to the US Food and Drug Administration plan to inject one-fifth of the normal vaccine dose under the top layer of skin rather than into fatty tissue, a strategy to immunize more people against the poxvirus.