Julie Gerberding Quotations

The potential for infecting large numbers of people is great,

We are preparing for the possibility of infectious diseases that could be spread under conditions of crowding in shelters,

We remain sobered by the ongoing transmission in Hong Kong, China and probably Singapore,

We're sorry we have another frustrating year for some people.

what we're seeing is well within the normal range for this time of year.

We expect we'll have time for most people to receive their vaccine.

What we need to do is get them where we need them the most, that's our challenge right now, ... But we're very optimistic that the seniors and very young children and those who need the doses will be able to get them.

We're asking those who provide influenza to give the first available doses to people in our priority groups ... Getting an influenza vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and your patients against this disease,

We might actually end up with the most-ever influenza vaccine produced in this country,

We're seeing very sporadic activity in seven states, and local activity in one state.

Lots of people are at risk. It's not too late to get vaccinated, ... And we really want people to keep looking for vaccine, to contact the providers.

One of the advantages we have is that of time,

More than 180 million people should get (flu) vaccine and we have never gotten anywhere near close to that,

Right now in the shelters where most of the people are located we have seen sporadic reports of gastrointestinal illness,

People who are compromised in immunity can sometimes develop severe infections with these bacteria. It does not represent an outbreak.

One of the most significant concerns from a public health perspective is that we know a lot of children who are overweight grow up to be overweight or obese adults, and thus are at greater risk for some major health problems.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I'd say the most likely scenario right now is we'll see it spread,

But, it's too soon to say for sure if there is any change in the pattern,

but for people under tremendous stress from the circumstances of the last days, we want to take every step to protect them.

But any time you have this kind of crowding and people under stress, we have to be concerned.

Frankly, we're not as prepared as we need to be. We're certainly doing more today than we were even two years ago so we're making fast progress. The steps we're taking now really will save lives and will really help us do more to protect people in the future.

Frankly, we're not as prepared as we need to be.

Fortunately, this year the flu season is not off to an early start, and there is plenty of time for people to get their shots,

Today, CDC has followed suit and has published the sequence of the virus.

What we don't want is for people to flood in in a disorganized way,

What we don't have, and what we hope we never have, is sustained human to human transmission like we do with seasonal influenza.

We may be in the early stages of what could be a larger problem. On the other hand, this is new and we have a lot of questions about the overall spread.

I think it is really important to remember that when this hurricane was coming, we actually didn't know where it was going to go,

Our impression is the demand probably has increased, but we don't have solid data yet.

People who place large orders for vaccine tend to get preferential treatment by distributors. This is a market distribution problem that's difficult to fix from a government perspective.

Tetanus is something we'd be especially concerned about,

My own mother called me this week because her doctor told her that the vaccine was not available,

Looking back to the 1918 pandemic virus is a natural source for us to try to understand and predict what we might be working with today in the context of H5 or some other pandemic.

I think hospitals did what they could to be prepared but I think it is difficult to prepare for something of this scope and, particularly in New Orleans, the flooding.

It did exist in New Orleans but they didn't have gasoline for the generators,

I think it would be naive to say we'd have it in under a year.

It hasn't reached what we call the epidemic threshold status yet, in terms of deaths from influenza-like illness. But we won't be surprised if that happens given the pattern emerging right now.

Wherever the birds are going, the mosquitoes are following, and that really does set the stage for transmission across the country,

Well, we're just at the beginning of the flu season, so we can't predict whether this is going to be a serious year or not, ... We have 20 million more doses of flu vaccine to get out there, and our goal is to get those doses to the people who need it the most before the season really speeds up.

We're watching the situation with the avian flu very carefully, taking the steps that need to be taken now to help prepare and, most importantly, detect the transfer of that virus into people, ... But it is a very worrisome situation.

With the Food and Drug Administration we are prepared to manage any food- or water-borne disease. Over the next days to weeks we could see the emergence of mosquito populations and West Nile virus ,

We believe the health hazard from this water is still a very important threat for people who have yet to evacuate, ... The results from the EPA indicate the water is full of sewage. We know it's not safe.

We know this is not safe; we know there are many common intestinal illnesses that can be transmitted by contact with the water.

We are not recommending mandatory testing in any group of people under any circumstance. We're simply treating an HIV test like any other medical test that would be part of good quality medical care.

We haven't identified anything about this strain that's different from strains in the other areas.

We know it's going to take time, ... It's requiring a lot of patience on everyone's part to get through this.

When you start getting the flu it's hard to distinguish it from any other upper respiratory infections so most people don't realize they have flu until past the 48 hour window.

We're not seeing any cases outside of these groups,

We are planning for a marathon and not a sprint. We will be collaborating with many people...for many months,

We are not experiencing a national outbreak, ... limited to a few exposures. Most people have nothing to be concerned about.

We still have no capacity to predict where it's going.

We want the flu shot in their arms first.

We know that our ability to effectively communicate, along with our skills in using computers and other information technologies, are very important in our efforts to improve people's health and well being. With these initial investments in four new Centers of Excellence, we hope to identify new tools, approaches, and strategies for managing health records, bringing together disease information from different places, understanding the questions and concerns of patients, and educating people about ways to improve their health. The more we learn about when and how to use health communication and electronic information systems, the better able we'll be to meet the needs of people in the community.

We are working around the clock to confirm or rule out the diagnosis,

We have been able to unmask the 1918 virus, and it is revealing to us some of the secrets that will help us prepare for and predict the next pandemic.

We really don't have any evidence that antibacterial soaps are any better than plain soap and water,

We do have disease detectives who are working to study some features of the outbreak so we can learn as the virus spreads from community to community.

This year's flu season is not off to an aggressive start. We have less flu in the country than we did this time last year,

We need to create a culture where hand-washing is the thing to do, ... If we can just wash our hands, we will have an impact on some of the most common problems, as well as some of the most serious health problems we face.

While the risk of the situation is very low, we're not taking any chances and we're doing everything we can to make sure that there is no threat to human health.

We also have a public health system that's been gearing up for terrorism and other threats, and really stood pointed and ready to engage in this effort.

We've no idea if it will become transmissible from one person to another efficiently, but we've got to take the steps now to get prepared for that.

This water is not going away any time soon.

We've probably never been closer to a pandemic than the year 1917.

We are cautiously optimistic that at least in some parts of the country, influenza may have peaked. But there's still plenty of flu out there, and we're still encouraging people with flu-like illness who meet the criteria for concerns or complications to be sure and seek medical attention if they do develop the illness.

We expect more cases - definitely. We really can't predict at this point of time where the virus will go next.

We certainly learned last year that there are always some uncertainties in dealing with influenza.

We're very early in the flu season this year. We're seeing very sporadic activity in seven states, and one state with local activity, but it's way at the very early stages. So it's difficult to predict how severe the season will be, when it will take off, and when it will peak, and what ultimately the spectrum of impact will be,

We don't want volunteers to flood in a discordant way.

We are very focused on the potential for and outbreak of pandemic influenza. We are looking back to the 1918 pandemic virus as a natural resource to help us understand and predict what we are dealing with.

We could see an outbreak today, or we may not ever see an outbreak of infectious disease in this context. It is too soon to say.

Even though we're hoping that we're past the peak for this early phase of the season, in past years we have seen flu come back, ... And we've also seen new strains emerge late in the season. So it's still important to be vigilant.

Dr. Goldman is a perfect match for the opportunities at Columbia. He is not only a leader of amazing innovations in medical education and biomedical research development, but also a long- standing champion of health promotion and primary prevention.

There will be some people who may not be able to get vaccine who really need it.

It would be unusual for measles or rubella or the other childhood-vaccine-preventable diseases to emerge, but many of the people in these shelters are among the people in our country who already experience health disparities, and we're erring on the side of immunizing anyone for whom we have any reason to suspect their vaccination status is not up-to-date.

These data indicate that the magnitude of the problem is larger than we once thought,

The specter of pandemic influenza is very frightening to people, ... It does remind people of the importance of influenza as an illness ... and in the long run may result in people being motivated.

Rule No. 1 is to isolate people who are infected so they don't infect anyone else.

Pregnant women can choose not to have the test and if they do, we want their children tested after birth,

Other countries, like Hong Kong, have just not been able to keep the epidemic under control, and I wish we knew why,

Some things we will do include isolating people who are sick and perhaps quarantining their counterparts.

So we're getting off to a bit of a slow start, ... That gives us a little more time to get those doses out there.

So we really need to help people move beyond the threat of the infectious disease and really think about the sadness and the difficulty that the people who are searching for their relatives are really experiencing in this context.

As clinicians become more familiar, more aware of what we're looking for, we would expect to see more cases just because there are more cases being diagnosed.

As an infectious disease expert, I've never seen a pathogen emerge and go away on its own, ... We have to expect that sometime, somewhere, this virus is going to rear its ugly head again.

Your hands are the most important means from which germs travel from one person to another. So it would make sense that washing your hands would be an effective strategy for protecting yourself.

You may see the mortality rate go up -- but that's not necessarily because SARS per se is getting worse,

This is an unstable situation right now. We're unable to predict where this will go.

This is an unstable situation right now. We're not reliably able to predict where this will go.

This is a tragic virus, but it is mainly there in that province, and is a very low threat to people here in this country.

This actually is the largest outbreak of mumps that we have seen in this country in more than 20 years.

It's at best embarrassing and at worst tragic that less than 50% of healthcare workers get vaccinated annually,

It's a vulnerable population, and the last thing they need to deal with in the context of all the other difficulties is a flu outbreak.

It's a fine line between outbreak or epidemic,

It is too early to tell if it's SARS. Anyone with pneumonia and a travel history is going to be under investigation. ... If you've not gone there, don't be concerned about it at this point.

It's a problem that is having an unusually high human toll this year,

the big picture this year, unlike last year, is that there are plenty of doses and plenty of time for people to get vaccinated.

The biggest challenge of all is going to be maintaining the chronic-care services to the people who had them before the hurricane ever hit,

The best protection against the mumps is the vaccine. We have seen that work successfully in the past. So we hope that will be successful this time.

The water is full of sewage, ... cooperate with the evacuation effort and leave.