Tom Clancy Quotes

Global pandemics---whether naturally occurring or intentionally spread---pose a greater threat than most man-made weapons of mass destruction.

The only way an Iraqi biological agent would kill you is if it landed on your head.

If you find diseases before they've really emerged, you can control them early on, before you get a major epidemic.

NIH biodefense research is ultimately directed toward the development of new and effective medical countermeasures, including vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics against potential bioterror agents.

We’re in a globalized world and the risk [of epidemics] is shared..

As demonstrated by the emergence of the Mexican swine flu in the U.S., infectious diseases have little respect for borders; helping developing countries detect and deal with their diseases is the surest way for us to protect ourselves from new and potentially devastating epidemics.

I've had to confront a lot of pandemics and infectious diseases around the globe.

Infectious diseases have become less prominent as causes of death and disability in regions of improved sanitation and adequate supplies of antibiotics.

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

When we faced a possibility here in New York of chemical and biological attack, three days after September 11, I called in all of the experts, academic experts, Nobel Prize laureates, and doctors who had dealt with anthrax, doctors who had dealt with various forms of chemical and biological attack.

Left to their own devices, epidemic diseases tend to follow the same basic process: A virus or bacteria infects a host, who typically becomes sick and in many cases dies. Along the way, the host infects others.

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.

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

Without effective human intervention, epidemics and pandemics typically end only when the virus or bacteria has infected every available host and all have either died or become immune to the disease.

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.

Contagious and infectious diseases have been largely overcome.

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

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

The Ebola epidemic is the worst health emergency there has been in modern times.

The spread of the disease is under control. What I worry about is the spread of fear of the disease is not under control.

Yellow fever outbreaks are not uncommon. But, as with other infectious diseases, when they occur in urban areas, they can play out very differently - not least in terms of the speed and scale at which they can spread.

Congress did the right thing with Ebola. They funded us to protect Americans and keep us safer.

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

Over and over, nature shows that it's a really tough adversary. That's why it's important that we invest in laboratories, disease detectives, research, mosquito control, the public health system around the world to find, stop, track, prevent health threats.