Dr. Fauci Quotations

One migratory bird does not a pandemic make.

It isn't an absolute, but you certainly can say that the chances of containing spread among bird flocks in developed nations that have good agricultural capabilities and controls, to identify rapidly and cull and eliminate the sick chickens to prevent spread . . . is much better than in some other developing nations.

It is entirely conceivable that this virus is inherently programmed that it will never be able to go efficiently from human to human. Hopefully the epidemic (in birds) will burn itself out, which epidemics do, before the virus evolves the capability of being more efficient in going from human to human.

We're aiming at 20-million doses of a pre-pandemic vaccine but to develop the capacity to be able to make 300-million doses within six months of when we ultimately get the latest version of it that is the real killer.

With seasonal flu, the response rate in healthy young adults ranges from 60 to 90 percent. We all hoped for 70 percent with this vaccine, but it wasn't to be. The next step is to give a booster to those who failed to respond, which we're already doing. Earlier studies have shown a third shot often increases immunity dramatically.

Every day there's another country. It's going to go all the way across, there's no doubt about it.

Currently the world capability is somewhere less than 500 million doses of vaccine with, you know, close to 6 billion people in the world. In addition, the dose that's required to induce an immune response with this particular vaccine is a significantly higher dose than the dose that you use to protect against the standard run-of-the-mill seasonal flu.

The surveillance is going to be so intense that it is very unlikely that there is going to be the type of situation we see everywhere from Nigeria to Indonesia.

People ask me, 'How worried should we be?

Developing a vaccine doesn't mean we will stockpile it to a great extent.

As we build up our capacity to respond to seasonal influenza, it will put us in good stead.

It is unclear whether the mutation occurred in the person or whether it occurred in the chicken.

That is a critical issue that is fundamentally different than what we see in Western Europe and that we will see in the United States.

It will take years to get stockpiles to the point you can effectively use it at the doses you want.

It won't be what you see in countries in which there is no regulation, in which there is no incentive to compensate farmers, in which the people, who are so poor, when they see their chickens are getting infected they immediately sell them or they don't tell anybody because they don't want them culled. That is a critical issue that is fundamentally different than what we see in Western Europe and that we will see in the United States.

Not to prepare for the worst-case scenario would be completely irresponsible.

At the end of the day, you have a broader, more favorable, beneficial effect on society by preventing the spread by vaccinating the spreaders ? not the grandpa who sits at home watching TV and doesn't go out and spread it to anybody but is concerned about it coming into the house. There has not been a policy change in that, but it is under very active discussion.