"What has been unfortunate is this debate for the last month of whether the link [between Zika virus and microcephaly] is proven or unproven. We had clear evidence for public health officials to take action a month ago."
"What’s fueled A. aegpyti [the mosquito that transmits Zika virus] is the overabundance of nondegradable biomaterials. Cleaning it up doesn't take research. It takes a will to do it."
"Zika is here to stay in the Western Hemisphere. . . . Even if we make vector control efforts a major initiative, it will only reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of Zika. What we need next, urgently, is a vaccine."
"Some critics are suggesting that such vaccine research for Zika should have been done years ago, but this isn’t entirely fair. It was only in the past 2 years that there was any indication this virus could cause serious human disease. Now we have to catch up. But it’s going to be complicated."
"These mosquitoes have adapted very well to our throw-away society. It's not in the swamps where the mosquitoes that spread malaria live. But that discarded fast food wrapper in the ditch could be a very important source of Aedes."
"If we're going to stop the transmission of MERS virus in hospitals, we've got to stop it from getting to humans in the first instance. And the only way we're going to do that is break that interface between the camel and the human."
"Possibly in the hundreds [of Boston College students who could become sick in Chipotle norovirus outbreak]. Close proximity does increase likelihood of transmission, so clearly dorm rooms and dormitories could lead to increased transmission."
"So one of the key questions is going to be for any kind of game-changing flu vaccine is how do you overcome [diminish immunity with past virus exposure]? And to the extent that that occurs, when does it jeopardize protection if, for example, you create a vaccine against the … stalk versus the head?"
“The [MERS] outbreak in Seoul was a wakeup call to a lot of people that what has happened on the Arabian Peninsula is not likely to stay there. We are going to see more Seouls happening.”
