Harvey V. Fineberg Quotations

The flu is very unpredictable when it begins and in how it takes off.

Evolution does not necessarily favor the longest-lived. It doesn't necessarily favor the biggest or the strongest or the fastest, and not even the smartest. Evolution favors those creatures best adapted to their environment. That is the sole test of survival and success.

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by social withdrawal, by repetitive behaviors and by some kind of focal attention in its classic form. Basically, it's an inability to relate to others.

When you're dealing with a problem as complex as autism, you have to look at it from many different points of view and assemble evidence from many different vantage points. Biological evidence in humans and in animals, toxicologic evidence, how does the body deal with toxins, and evidence looking at the actual experience in populations.

I spend so much of my day at work. I would like to have the workplace be part of a healthier strategy. Reminding me more about walking the steps rather than taking that elevator. Not just promoting healthier food in the cafeteria, but providing information on healthier choices. I use it when I look at the alternatives.

We don't have spittoons on street corners any more. It's no longer acceptable to spit on the street.

We've gone from a preponderance of acute and infectious disease as a source of premature death to chronic diseases, which are the preponderance of the burden of illness in most of the world. That puts a much higher premium on the prevention of chronic disease than ever in history.

Autism is a complicated illness, and children with a variety of treatments and non-treatments show improvement over time, which is all to the good.

When cultural change succeeds, it succeeds because it's so embedded in what we do that we don't have to think about.

Evolution is all about passing on the genome to the next generation, adapting and surviving through generation after generation. From an evolutionary point of view, you and I are like the booster rockets designed to send the genetic payload into the next level of orbit and then drop off into the sea.

Nature is the worst terrorist you can imagine.

The emergency care Americans receive can fall short of what they expect and deserve.

Keep in mind that there are many neurotoxins in the world. Dozens of natural and industrial substances have neurotoxic properties.

At the bottom of the ocean, bacteria that are thermophilic and can survive at the steam vent heat that would otherwise produce, if fish were there, sous-vide cooked fish, nevertheless, have managed to make that a hospitable environment for them.

Are we at some kind of evolutionary equipoise as a species? Or, are we destined to become something different - something, perhaps, even better adapted to the environment?