Osterholm Quotes

"The [COVID] Delta variant is clearly going to be another wave. If you decide not to get vaccinated, this virus will still find you."

"Your head’s in the freezer, your feet are in the oven, and your average temperature’s just right....Some people think this [pandemic] is just gone now, that this is it. And it’s not. Globally, these have been the worst few months of the pandemic."

"We have a lot of [COVID-]susceptible people out there yet that have been not vaccinated, that, for example, should this Delta variant take over, we’re going to see local and regional surges that are substantial."

"The variants continue to spin out of infections around the world and have gotten more complicated and more dangerous....We have a mistaken belief [the pandemic] is over here, but there are over 100 counties where less than 20% of the people have one dose of vaccine."

"I think that with the data we have, there’s a good chance that [the Delta strain, B1617.2] could take over the 117 [Alpha strain] as the primary variant just because it’s more infectious. It’s going to create a real additional challenge."

"If the Delta virus [B1617.2] quickly becomes a problem here, which we have every reason to believe it would, even those with one [vaccine] dose will not be adequately protected. We've got to get as many people as possible with two doses for the mRNA vaccines."

"[Even if we reach herd immunity] one of the challenges we’re going to have with herd immunity is that it’s also not a static situation. Vaccinated today doesn’t mean necessarily vaccinated next year."

"I do believe, in the United States at least, the potential for a very dramatic national surge is off the table because of the vaccination levels. ... [However,] unvaccinated people will continue to get infected, they will continue to get seriously ill, and they will continue to die."

“If you’re going to a family reunion, you can look at the rates of [COVID-19] infection in your community. ... But at a lot of big outdoor events, if you have a person coming from an outside area, you have no idea where they are coming from in terms of risk.”

"What role the Wuhan lab may have played, it doesn’t matter. [The issue is] needing to beef up lab-based safety for future potential agents that might escape."

"There are issues around participant safety that haven't been fully addressed [at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics]. You're only as strong as your weakest link."

"You know, I gave up my eyeballs and my fingerprints to Clear so I could get on and off an airplane sooner. Will people do that so that you can feel confident that the person you’re sitting next to without a mask is, in fact, vaccinated?"

"I for one don't ever believe we'll reach herd immunity. ... What we will do [with COVID vaccinations] is dramatically decrease transmission; we'll make it very different than it has been."

“For [COVID] vaccinated individuals, in a private home or wherever, party hard. Enjoy it. You’ve earned it. You can feel safe in doing that, and that’s what we need to help people understand; [vaccinations are] what's going to make a real difference in getting our communities back to this new normal.”

"What we’re going to see are more of these localized [COVID-19] outbreaks that are going to require a response from governors and mayors."

"We are seeing vaccines fall precipitously in terms of new vaccines. During the last 4 or 5 days, we’ve had more people in this country vaccinated just for the second dose rather than the first, which indicates that the numbers are going down."

"We had many more arms that wanted [the COVID-19] vaccine than the vaccine was available. Now, it's no longer the last mile. It is solely down to the last inch, getting the needles in people's arms."

"Just remind ourselves that it took nine months from the beginning of the pandemic to accumulate those first 1 million cases. It took four additional months to accumulate the next 1 million cases. And it only took three months for the third million. That should give one a sense also of what's happening globally today."

"If there is any sense that something is being hidden [about the COVID-19 vaccines], I think that will create irreparable harm from a credibility standpoint to our ability to continue to pursue these vaccine programs."

"Michigan and Minnesota have among some of the highest [COVID] vaccination levels in the country. We've also been hit with previous waves and yet look what's happening. We don't have adequate vaccination levels in this country along with previous infections to prevent a surge from occurring."