Pandemic Quotations

Seasonal flu is now a pandemic that lasts for years and years because you've got so many people that it's jumping back between northern and southern hemispheres and moving itself around the world. By the time it gets back to where it started, it's changed sufficiently so that people are no longer immune.

Africa needs more funding to continue to fight all of those diseases. We are losing more than 1.3 million young children under the age of five every year because of malaria. We've already lost 25 million people to the pandemic of HIV-AIDS. More people are dying now from typhoid fever. Diabetes is on the rise.

It's the advantage of the virus to spread, and you can only spread when you infect people and they infect other people without necessarily killing them. So if you had 100 percent mortality, the potential pandemic would almost self-eliminate itself.

Grave security concerns can arise as a result of demographic trends, chronic poverty, economic inequality, environmental degradation, pandemic diseases, organized crime, repressive governance and other developments no state can control alone. Arms can't address such concerns.

More people will be susceptible to the pandemic strain.

Only when a pandemic virus strain develops will a vaccine be created, and it will not take long - only about a month.

One of the very important things to point out here is that we are not dealing with a human pandemic strain yet, thank goodness.

One migratory bird does not a pandemic make.

New Hampshire has taken a number of steps to make themselves a leader nationally in preparing for pandemic influenza. Preparation works, and these funds will help states and communities develop the plans they need to keep their citizens safe.

New pandemic outbreaks will occur in the future. What we don't know is when or its severity or how soon it might occur,

If we ever have a pandemic of avian flu, which is a debatable point, people want to know that they have a drug that will not cause more (harm) than the flu itself. There is no evidence that this will.

The plan is long on directions and short on resources for non-federal partners in pandemic preparedness.

Measures we can take to handle pandemic flu if it emerges in the next six months are limited and bleak, but wise investments and strong science could well bolster the public health armamentarium considerably over the next five years.

Millions of children and young people are already affected by the pandemic - including those infected through the most heart-reading from of transmission, mother to child,

Maintaining vigilance is going to be a long and exhausting process. Nobody can say with any certainty when a pandemic virus will emerge.

We might be able to find ways that we can mitigate this. And we should be doing this in quiet time before a pandemic rather than under pressure should one erupt.

There are a lot of scary stories out there about the next pandemic, but we have to make difficult decisions without a lot of information. The real answer is we don't know until the next pandemic virus appears.

Full liability protection is a requirement for our participation in the development and production of a pandemic vaccine.

Giant does not have a formal pandemic preparedness plan. The feeling is that we have enough employees -- we have over 25,000 employees. If the need arose, we could move these employees around quite a bit to wherever the greatest operational need within the company would be to keep our stores open.

From the beginning, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has presented very difficult challenges.

Globally it's unbalanced. There would be more bang for the buck if more were invested globally in pandemic vaccine development.

I believe the momentum that is now building up will give us a chance to change the course of history and head off a pandemic caused by the H5N1 virus.

But the reality is H5N1 activity in a certain place does not mean that we will see a pandemic start there. It could start anywhere. And as always, poorer nations are more vulnerable to disease than wealthier ones.

But the risk is pretty much the same as it has been, it is very low to humans, but we're worried about the transformation of the virus into a human pandemic strain.

H5N1 has pandemic potential but it is not a pandemic virus.

H5N1 is primarily an animal disease. However, given its expanding geographical scope and that H5N1 is endemic in some countries, our assessment is that the risk of pandemic is great. Timing is unpredictable and the severity is uncertain.

We're only missing one more piece before it becomes a pandemic and that is the ability to be transmitted from person to person as opposed to simply from birds or fowl to humans,

Looking back to the 1918 pandemic virus is a natural source for us to try to understand and predict what we might be working with today in the context of H5 or some other pandemic.

Recent clinical, epidemiological and laboratory evidence suggests that the impact of a pandemic caused by the current H5N1 strain would be similar to that of the 1918-19 pandemic,

States have a critical role and we are asking states to plan to the greatest level of detail to prepare for a pandemic and distribution of vaccines.

I think everyone would agree a pandemic is not imminent.

I think that these data present real concerns about how can we use this class in the future. And it certainly says it makes little sense to make it an important part of drug stockpiles for pandemic response,

It is infectious between people and it quickly became the first global pandemic of this century, mainly due to global travel.

Pandemic disease - whether caused by H5N1 influenza or some other microbe - is a threat to all countries, not just those in Asia, and to all economies, not just the rich or poor. We must take decisive action to respond to that threat now.

It goes without saying to this group that there could be no bigger challenge than to try and plan effectively for pandemic flu.

We never know when a pandemic is going to hit so it's part of our bio-emergency planning.

Unfortunately, we cannot tell when the mutation might happen, or where it might happen, or how unpleasant the mutant virus will turn out to be. Nevertheless, we must remain on high alert for the possibility of sustained human-to-human transmission and of a pandemic starting at any time.

We don't have a plan if a pandemic comes around, we can't turn 53 buildings, 32,000 students and 1,800 teachers into a kind of virtual school. We couldn't even do that in a year. We don't have a plan for sending curriculum by e-mail to students. We'll be doing whatever we can in the best interest of the community. . . . And we would do whatever kind of enrichment activities we could.

We are in possession of one of the key ingredients of a potential solution to the pandemic threat.

The amount asked for is small compared to the cost of a pandemic we are not ready for.

Vaccine research is crucial to controlling the AIDS pandemic and our companies are well aware of the need to succeed in this vital area of science.

We're way behind. The United States cannot come close to that 25% level. For us, that would be at least 75 million treatments. We have to hope that the pandemic doesn't strike before we've ordered enough and received enough that it will provide some kind of protection.

Will it happen in a few months or will it ever happen? We just don't know. But we recognize that somewhere in the near future we will have a pandemic flu caused by something and we have to be prepared.

While we still have a window of opportunity, we must do everything we can to avert an influenza pandemic as we simultaneously prepare for a worse-case scenario,

While the costs of dealing with this have so far been limited to around 0.1%, from culling birds and implementation of better animal health surveillance systems, the potential impact of a serious pandemic is of grave concern.

While the costs of dealing with this have so far been limited to around 0.1 percent of GDP, from culling birds and implementation of better animal health surveillance systems, the potential impact of a serious pandemic is of grave concern.

We must try to ensure that we will be ready to respond instantly with all the weapons at our disposal should the early signs of an influenza pandemic appear. If we fail, the consequences for societies, economies and global public health could be immeasurable.

We must understand that when one country is not safe, the world is not safe. Pandemic influenza, by nature, will go around the world, so it is important for us to work as an international community to get a better handle on the issue.

The reality is that if a pandemic hits, it's not just a health emergency. It's the big one. It requires big thinking to make sure all those dots are connected. Katrina was a wake-up call.

We have so far a situation that is not satisfactory ... it's very difficult for many people to predict how much (vaccine) is going to be available two, three or even five months after a pandemic has emerged.

We have a window of opportunity to prevent a pandemic or at least delay the spread of a pandemic.

There is a real threat, and I think the situation we are facing today is quite alarming. We really fear that this particular virus might be at the basis of the first pandemic outbreak of influenza in the 21st century.

What we need to do is help companies understand where their vulnerabilities are, what products are critical during a pandemic that we must have, such as medical supplies, and how are we going to respond to that?

When the virus shows up in a new country, it doesn't mean that the pandemic has started, it means that the animal disease has spread.

We still believe it is possible to stop or delay a pandemic by implementing rapid containment measures very quickly.

We are overdue, historically speaking, for a pandemic in this country. The issue, of course, is preparedness, and from the business perspective, we want to make sure the infrastructure is in place.

We're not going to know how lethal the next pandemic is going to be until the pandemic begins. You could pick almost any number.

We are not in a pandemic situation. It is still an animal disease.

The existing flu vaccine manufacturing system is not adequate to meet the nation's needs in the event of a flu pandemic or a shortage,

We're trying to stretch the supply of vaccine, but to be perfectly honest, if a pandemic occurs tomorrow, we can cover 4 million people.

We can't stop (the pandemic flu), and run from it and hide for a year.

When people are dying by the thousands every day, unnecessarily, when we've had this horrendous pandemic unfold for two decades while the world stands by and watches - you'll do anything in your power to move the process.

We keep encouraging countries to develop a plan because a pandemic is inevitable.

Too much time has gone by and even now we seem to focus more on addressing a possible pandemic which is spread from human to human.

We have no protection against it and that is the beginning of a pandemic. We don't know what the next pandemic will be like or where it will start. It will be much more than a health event. It will cripple our economy.

Until we see further evidence, we are still at Phase 3 of the pandemic alert,

Until we see further evidence we are still at phase three of the pandemic alert.

We're pleased with the money coming to South Carolina. It's going to help local governments and other agencies across the state prepare for a potential pandemic reaching our state.

We are preparing for fire, flooding and pandemic disease right now. We hope that none of it happens, but we are planning so when it does we are ready.

We are profoundly unprepared to manage a pandemic flu threat right now,

We stand by the guidance of February when we forecast 1.1 to 1.2 billion Swiss francs for pandemic use. That is the best estimate we can give on the government orders we have.

We started from zero five weeks ago to all this hot, hot spotlight on pandemic flu, but we're not going to be ready.

Three times in this century we have experienced pandemic influenza and they will come again. We must be ready,

We know we're overdue for an influenza pandemic strain, and we know it will occur, but we don't know when or even exactly what virus will cause it. It is possible that the virus won't be H5N1 at all or that this virus will change in a way so that the vaccine under development doesn't work against it.

Bird flu is something we should be prepared for, but even if a pandemic never happens, everything we learn now from this vaccine can be applied to vaccines for other emerging infectious diseases.

Bird flu today is not a problem for travelers. There is no case of a traveler contracting the virus. The day a pandemic will start, the picture will change totally.

Even if you take every year the problems of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV /AIDS, which are horrible, pandemic influenza has the potential in just one fell swoop to kill so many more people than those diseases kill in decades.

Based on assessment of all available information and following several expert consultations, I have decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5.

Every single human infection that is reported is a cause for concern and the threat of a bird flu pandemic grows from month to month.

At some point, the pandemic is going to happen. We're prepared better today than we were last week. We can only prepare so far,

At this moment there is no pandemic influenza in the United States or the world, but if history is our guide there's reason to be concerned, ... In the last century, our country and the world have been hit by three influenza pandemics, and viruses from birds contributed to all of them.

At the time of writing, there is considerable trepidation that we could be in for something even worse (than the influenza pandemic of 1918-19),

Turning a zombie pandemic into a generic disaster movie robs the zombies of their dirty, nasty edginess and robs the disaster of its epic scope.

While we cannot predict when or if the H5N1 virus might spark a pandemic, we cannot ignore the warning signs, ... For the first time in human history, we have a chance to prepare ourselves for a pandemic before it arrives.

The specter of pandemic influenza is very frightening to people, ... It does remind people of the importance of influenza as an illness ... and in the long run may result in people being motivated.

The speed of vaccine development will be particularly crucial when the next pandemic arrives.

The threat of an avian flu pandemic is already very real for companies with employees in Asia, but European employers need to be prepared too.

The threat of pandemic flu is an urgent health challenge,

The situation is worsening with each passing month and the threat of an influenza pandemic is continuing to grow.

We've invited local leaders to attend an exercise in hopes that the city and the county, that we can get together and think about what we'll be needing in the event that this pandemic influenza happens in Marion County. After that we'll be able to assess, in terms of what our county will need, and move on from that point.

An intranasal pandemic vaccine may help facilitate and expedite influenza vaccinations for more Americans in the event of a pandemic outbreak.

It would be the first time in the history of mankind that a pandemic has been stamped out before it happened.

We've probably never been closer to a pandemic than the year 1917.

What this pandemic could do to us as a people is even more threatening than what a few terrorists could do, even a few terrorists with a nuclear device.

There is still a window of opportunity for substantially reducing the risk of a human pandemic evolving from H5N1 by controlling the virus at its source, in animals.

We are very focused on the potential for and outbreak of pandemic influenza. We are looking back to the 1918 pandemic virus as a natural resource to help us understand and predict what we are dealing with.

We currently have no evidence that a pandemic flu in this country is imminent. That said, we are fairly warned, and the time to prepare for that pandemic is now.

Both cases we came up with were very pessimistic. There is no single magic bullet for stopping pandemic flu.

Act as though a pandemic influenza will start tomorrow. Don't think we can wait around and not worry it won't start for six months or one year. Once, it starts it is too late to prepare.

People confuse it with pandemic influenza, but they're very different diseases,