Bill Frist Quotes

Pandemics happen. When they do, they change the world.

Unfortunately, infectious diseases don’t pay much attention to budget cycles.

Epidemics follow patterns because diseases follow patterns. Viruses spread; they reproduce; they die.

Infectious diseases ... have probably been the most dangerous of enemies of mankind, much more so than war and mass murder. When one studies the constant epidemics of the past and the deficiency diseases on land and at sea, one realizes that the whole of civilization could have succumbed, and one is constantly surprised that mankind has survived.

Of course when you look back from all the pandemics that have happened in the world, they were really scary.

The border patrol gave us a list of the diseases that they're concerned about, and Ebola was one of those.

When you're dealing with new and emerging diseases, you have no idea and you can't predict in advance what would happen.

This is an industry that doesn't have the common cold... It has cholera.

In today's world, new infections and diseases can spread across the country and even across the world in a matter of days, or even hours, making early detection critical.

Infectious disease exists at this intersection between real science, medicine, public health, social policy, and human conflict. There's a tendency of people to try and make a group out of those who have the disease. It makes people who don't have the disease feel safer.

Smallpox is the only human infectious disease ever eradicated by science.

Influenza killed more people in September, October, and November of 1918 than AIDS killed in all the years since it entered the human population.

We can't predict when infectios diseases will break out, but their breakout is inevitable. That is why we must be prepared.

Nobody spends any money on smallpox unless they worry about a bio-terrorist recreating it.

Humankind is no stranger to calamitous outbreaks of diseases.

We live in a world at constant risk of public health emergencies. In our increasingly interconnected world, public health emergencies can affect anyone, anywhere.

Think about all kinds of infectious diseases, like mumps or measles or chicken pox. When a virgin population encountered those pathogens, it ravaged the population, and now they're childhood diseases, and eventually they won't even be that. That's our relationship with bacteria, going through time.

When I was doing 'Executive Orders,' I talked about Ebola to people who know about infectious diseases and their use as weapons of war, and guys told me that these weapons are more psychological than physical.

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans - an avian flu pandemic.

Anthrax, it's something that gets you sick, it's horrible, strong. It's a heavy-metal band name if there ever was one.

The worst potential bio-terrorist is nature itself.

Pandemics happen. They have happened three times in the last 100 years…. They change the politics, the culture, the society. Pandemics do that …. Pandemics reshape history …. The likelihood of a pandemic is almost certain…. The consequences are worldwide.

Contagious and infectious diseases have been largely overcome.

Avian flu, which has already killed 50 people, is only a mutation away from being transmissible from person to person. We have no immunity, no vaccines, and no cure. It is imperative that we strengthen our domestic vaccine supply, expand legal protections, encourage collaboration between the public and private sectors, and advance research and development. These initiatives will help protect us from a deadly viral outbreak that experts warn could come to our shores any day.

You better have your disease program in line. The bugs are evolving quicker than our anti-biotics.