Samuel Wilson Quotes

The way we work in public health is, we make the best recommendations and decisions based on the best available data.

I think we should put the same weight now on the co-factors as we have on HIV.

Since the reduction of risk factors is the scientific basis for primary prevention, the World Health Organization promotes the development of an integrated strategy for prevention of several diseases, rather than focusing on individual ones.

As director of the CDC, one of the best parts of my job is announcing good news.

I'm for increased funding for the Centers for Disease Control.

I think Tom Frieden, the CDC director, is a good man, is a good doctor and, I think, basically has done a good job.

I contracted malaria while working in the field. That was the impetus for me to pursue a doctorate in community health. As a young academic, I investigated the patterns of malaria's spread and the potential measures we could employ to control it.

It's now evident that public health is part of national security.

We've had risk assessments performed by Harvard University, which said that even if we did have a small number of cases in this country that the likelihood of it spreading or getting into any kind of human health problem is very, very small.

According to the comprehensive Global Burden of Disease project, the leading risk factors for ill health and premature death are linked to lifestyle, what we eat and drink and how much we exercise. Disease prevention does not occur in the hospital. We need the whole of society to be involved.

I've always been interested in public health approaches because it seems to me we have this yearning for silver bullets, and that is not in fact how change comes about. Change comes through silver buckshot - a lot of little things that achieve results. That's a classic public health approach.

I want to make people aware of early detection.

I begin with the premise that behavior is an incredibly important element in medicine. People's habits, their willingness to quit smoking, their willingness to take steps to avoid transmission of HIV, are all behavioral questions.

As a species, I think we have no choice but to try and forecast pandemics.

We live in a world fraught with risk from new pandemics. Fortunately, we also now live in an era with the tools to build a global immune system.

If smallpox were a threat just to individuals, then it could be left up to individuals to decide whether or not they want to protect themselves.

The reduction of the death rate is the principal statistical expression and index of human social progress.

I loved clinical practice, but in public health, you can impact more than one person at a time. The whole society is your patient.

Accurate diagnostics are key to enabling successful public health measures.

My number one priority is keeping our kids safe and protecting the health of the people of Michigan.

Issues like obesity do, as you well know, have a knock-on effect to diabetes. So we all are better off if we invest early in prevention.

I earned a Master's degree in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2009.

The CDC is an integral part of our community and on the frontlines of our pandemic response, and we must continue to give them more tools to help keep our families safe and healthy.

You have to get the balance right, especially with public health, so that you take the measures that benefit the public's health but without causing people to resent you so that you actually don't cure the ill that you seek to cure.

The CDC has always been an example of unbiased and thorough medical research, both in America and around the world, and we must continue to provide the doctors and experts at the CDC the resources they need to help solve and prevent public health crises.