Health

Epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

05 Jan 2022 5 2

Naftali Bennett

Inserted 2 years ago

“A week into the fourth dose we know to a higher degree of certainty that the fourth dose is safe. The second piece of news: We know that a week after administration of a fourth dose, we see a five-fold increase in the number of antibodies in the vaccinated person. This most likely means a significant increase against infection and …hospitalization and (severe) symptoms.”

Nationalpost

Israeli Prime Minister

04 Jan 2022 7 3

Liu Guozhong

Inserted 2 years ago

“Xi'an is the decisive destination in the fight against the pandemic and only when the outbreak in Xi'an has been put under control can we fundamentally reverse the passive situation in the entire province [Shaanxi province].”

Secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China

01 Jan 2022 3 3

Matthew Knight

Inserted 2 years ago

“If you are planning to build a field hospital in a car park and to care for patients in an understaffed tent. I think you can justify stopping a few New Year's Eve parties and asking everyone to stay at home for a fortnight.”

Consultant Respiratory Physician at West Herts Hospitals

30 Dec 2021 2 3

Stephen Powis

Inserted 2 years ago

“We do not yet know exactly how many of those who catch the virus will need hospital treatment. But given the number of infections we cannot wait to find out before we act and so work is beginning from today to ensure these facilities are in place.”

Medical director for the National Health Service in England

30 Dec 2021 3 2

Peter Hoetz

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have to be really careful about being too dismissive of Omicron. Rising hospitalizations as healthcare workers are sidelined with their own COVID cases is also concerning, as are fewer effective therapeutics. We're in for a pretty serious time.”

Infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine

30 Dec 2021 4 5

Michael Osterholm

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are going to see the number of cases in this country rise so dramatically, we are going to have a hard time keeping everyday life operating. The next month is going to be a viral blizzard. All of society is going to be pressured by this.”

American epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota

30 Dec 2021 3 3

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“I'm highly concerned that omicron, being more transmissible (and) circulating at the same time as delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases. That will put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems of the brink of collapse. I still remain optimistic that this can be the year we can not only end the acute stage of the pandemic, but we also chart a path to stronger health security.”

Director-General of the World Health Organization

29 Dec 2021 6 2

Christian Dubé

Inserted 2 years ago

“The province has little choice but to change its isolation protocols due to the meteoric spread of the Omicron variant, which has created staff shortages. The health system cannot maintain services while nearly 7,000 workers are home isolating because of a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to the virus. Omicron's contagion is so exponential that a huge number of personnel have to be withdrawn, and that poses a risk to the network capacity to treat Quebecers.”

Thestar

Quebec Health Minister

28 Dec 2021 4 2

Wes Streeting

Inserted 2 years ago

“People are trying to do the right thing, follow the government's own advice, and test themselves regularly, but are prevented by the Conservative government's incompetence. They need to get a grip and provide enough tests so people can keep themselves and everyone else safe.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom

28 Dec 2021 3 2

Sajid Javid

Inserted 2 years ago

“There will be no further measures before the new year. When we get into the new year, of course we will see then whether we do need to take any further measures. We will watch carefully what is happening in the hospitals. Should, in the future, we need to act, of course we won't hesitate to do so.”

Arabnews

UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

27 Dec 2021 1 2

Robert Wachter

Inserted 2 years ago

“The lower hospitalization rate is likely due to two things: greater immunity among the public from vaccines and prior coronavirus infection, and that omicron might be slightly less severe than delta. Vaccines don't stop infections with omicron, but they do reduce the risk of hospitalization by about 70% - with a booster shot, that figure is even higher. If you're a person who has no immunity at all, no vaccination and no prior infection or your prior infection was a year and a half ago and it was mild, you're not out of the woods. There is a reasonable chance that you will get very sick with omicron.”

Npr

Chair of the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco

27 Dec 2021 9 3

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“When you are talking about a New Year's Eve party, where you have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you do not know the status of the vaccination - I would recommend strongly, stay away from that this year. There will be other years to do that, but not this year.”

Top US infectious disease expert

27 Dec 2021 3 2

Kimberly Halkett

Inserted 2 years ago

“With many Americans travelling and gathering with family and friends over the holidays, the fear is that this will get worse before it gets better. Record seven-day infection numbers have been reported in several states, including New York, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Jersey, to rival rates not seen since the early days of the pandemic. This is a grave concern to public health officials because what this means is there's a strain on hospitals.”

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Washington, DC

27 Dec 2021 8 2

Ministry of Health Singapore

Inserted 2 years ago

“Following the review and discussion with tripartite partners, we have decided to remove the PET [pre-event testing] concession for unvaccinated persons to return to the workplace from Jan 15, 2022. This change will help to protect unvaccinated individuals and to create safer workplaces for everyone.”

Channelnewsasia

Statement by the Ministry of Health Singapore

26 Dec 2021 2 3

Gili Regev-Yochay

Inserted 2 years ago

“We will examine the fourth dose's effect on the level of antibodies and morbidity and we will gauge its safety. We will understand whether it is worthwhile to administer a fourth shot, and to whom.”

Director of the study that analyzes the data of the Covid-19 fourth dose at the Sheba Medical Center

26 Dec 2021 2 3

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“Even though we're pleased by the evidence from multiple countries - it looks like there is a lesser degree of severity - we've got to be careful that we don't get complacent about that. There were still tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans. Those are the most vulnerable ones when you have a virus that is extraordinarily effective in getting to people and infecting them the way Omicron is.”

Top US infectious disease expert

26 Dec 2021 3 3

Paul Donaldson

Inserted 2 years ago

“It would be ludicrous not to respond more decisively to Omicron, and that Christmas mingling will inevitably have spread Covid. There is a high probability we are moving too late. We will soon start to see the impact of Christmas. We are holding out hope that hospitalisations are at the lower end of projections. But given the uncertainty we face it would be ludicrous not to take additional precautions.”

General secretary of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association

26 Dec 2021 5 3

Narendra Modi

Inserted 2 years ago

“From the point of view of precaution, the government has decided that healthcare and front-line workers should start getting a precaution dose.”

Prime Minister of India

25 Dec 2021 4 2

Arnold Monto

Inserted 2 years ago

“The question is: is this going to be like influenza - against which an annual vaccine is recommended - or is it going to be like measles? - which requires only two doses for life-long protection. That's where many of us disagree.”

Professor at the University of Michigan’s school of public health

25 Dec 2021 5 3

William Hanage

Inserted 2 years ago

“The unvaccinated are much more likely to be in a hospital, and they're much more likely to be taking up a bed that might be wanted this winter.”

Epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

25 Dec 2021 2 2

Julien Carvelli

Inserted 2 years ago

“We're sick of this. We're afraid we won't have enough space.”

ICU chief at Marseille’s La Timone Hospital

25 Dec 2021 1 3

William Schaffner

Inserted 2 years ago

“Although hospitalizations may be less, that doesn't mean zero. There are many places in the country where hospitalizations now are increasing.”

Cnn

Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

24 Dec 2021 2 3

Raywat Deonandan

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have data out of the UK that suggests that there may be an intrinsic mildness to Omicron as compared to Delta but it's not by a lot, and the hyper contagiousness of Omicron means that even that mildness probably won't protect the health care system. So that is why we have to curtail transmission as much as we can. A tiny fraction of a large number, is still going to be a very large number.”

Cbc

Epidemiologist and Science Communicator specializing in Global Health

24 Dec 2021 6 3

Chaand Nagpaul

Inserted 2 years ago

“What we know now of course is that the patients, people who are becoming seriously ill, who are being hospitalised, are those who have not been vaccinated and those who have not had their boosters.”

Chair of the British Medical Association

24 Dec 2021 3 4

Rory Challands

Inserted 2 years ago

“The number of cases is still breaking records pretty much every day. Omicron does seem to be less severe than the other variants … but as it is so infectious … there is still a chance that the burden on the NHS could be unacceptable.”

Al Jazeera’s journalist reporting from Liverpool

24 Dec 2021 3 2

Emily Lawson

Inserted 2 years ago

“This Christmas, before sitting down to your dinner with your family, I would encourage anyone not already boosted to come forward, book an appointment and get the gift of a jab.”

Head of the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme

24 Dec 2021 2 4

Abdullah Shihipar

Inserted 2 years ago

“How exactly did the richest country in the world get here? There are a number of reasons, but the primary one is that the United States does not have a free, universal health care system. The lack of a national health insurance program affects everything from vaccine hesitancy to the ability to get a test to how we manage the virus going forward.”

Thenation

Writer who focuses on public health, race, class, and other social justice issues

23 Dec 2021 5 4

Matthew Oughton

Inserted 2 years ago

“Unfortunately these measures are very little and I think are highly unlikely to do much at all to stem the tide of infections...and unfortunately with something that transmits as quickly as Omicron you have to move immediately because anything less than that and the transmission of the infection is going to outpace your efforts, it's sad but it's a mathematical fact.”

Cbc

Infectious disease specialist at the Jewish General Hospital and an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal

23 Dec 2021 3 4

Huang Chun

Inserted 2 years ago

“We express regret that they cannot take part in the Games because of COVID... We firmly believe these COVID-prevention measures can reduce the risk of infection spreading, and can ensure the health of the athletes and other games personnel while ensuring the games go on and that the Chinese people are safe.”

Deputy director general of the Pandemic Prevention and Control Office at BOCOG

23 Dec 2021 2 2

Lin Suling

Inserted 2 years ago

“Omicron could prove a bigger test to Singapore's march towards living normally with COVID-19 than Delta did, but the mood isn't one of fear or even fatigue but poise.”

Channelnewsasia

Supervising Editor at Channel News Asia

23 Dec 2021 3 2

Maria Van Kerkhove

Inserted 2 years ago

“Less than 0.1% each of the sequences uploaded to platforms like GISAID have been Alpha, Beta and Gamma. 96% of the sequences available are still Delta. About 1.6% of sequences that have been shared in recent weeks is Omicron. We definitely see increasing growth rates of Omicron where it's been detected and it's now been reported in more than 106 countries to date. There is a combination of factors that we think are leading to this increasing transmission. First are the mutations that are identified in the Omicron variant and we know something about these mutations because some of these are present in other variants of concern. So, for example, in Omicron there are mutations that allow the virus to adhere to the cell more easily and infect the cell more easily. We also see immune escape where we see increasing rates of reinfection. And then there is some preliminary data that's looking at the efficiency and replication of the Omicron variant in the upper respiratory tract as opposed to the lower respiratory tract in the lungs. So this combination of factors is likely leading to why we are seeing increased growth rates in a number of countries.”

Twitter

World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist

22 Dec 2021 14 2

Maria Van Kerkhove

Inserted 2 years ago

“Getting vaccines to those who need them most must be a priority for every single government - not just some. If we don't, we will continue to see the virus change and threaten us in ways that will bring us closer to the beginning rather than closer to the end.”

Bbc

World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist

22 Dec 2021 4 2

Matthew Binnicker

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's important to emphasize that if omicron has a much higher transmission rate compared to delta, the absolute number of people requiring hospitalization might still increase, despite less severe disease in most cases.”

Director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

22 Dec 2021 4 2

François Legault

Inserted 2 years ago

“There's truly a steep exponential rise in cases. We believe in the next few days there will be a big increase in hospitalizations.”

Cbc

Premier of Quebec

22 Dec 2021 5 3

Dominic Perrottet

Inserted 2 years ago

“Our approach to Covid has never been 'set and forget' - we will always look at options and different ways doing things as we learn to navigate our way through the pandemic. This will also help people monitor their own symptoms and go about their daily activities in a responsible manner helping protect themselves, their families and the community.”

New South Wales Premier

22 Dec 2021 2 2

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are many of these parties that have 30, 40, 50 people in which you do not know the vaccination status of individuals. Those are the kind of functions in the context of Omicron that you do not want to go to.”

Usnews

Top US infectious disease expert

22 Dec 2021 3 3

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the Covid-19 pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate. No country can boost its way out of the pandemic.”

France24

Director-General of the World Health Organization

22 Dec 2021 5 3

Patrizia Cavazzoni

Inserted 2 years ago

“This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.”

Director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

22 Dec 2021 3 2

Gregory Poland

Inserted 2 years ago

“The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it's oral. It checks all the boxes. You're looking at a 90 percent decreased risk of hospitalisation and death in a high-risk group - that's stunning.”

Professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group

22 Dec 2021 2 2

Krishna Udayakumar

Inserted 2 years ago

“We're now at a point of having more than a billion doses a month of vaccines being produced, but it's a slow trickle still to get to low-income countries and lower middle-income countries. So we have not solved the supply challenge by any means, but we are closer to solving it than we ever have been. Looking forward to 2022 I think the entire game is really going to be about vaccination. So how do we get from airports to arms? How do we convert vaccines to vaccinations? I think we are woefully under-resourced and under-prepared for that … There's good progress to build from but much, much more work to do and financing gaps in the billions if not tens of billions of dollars.”

Founding director of the Global Health Innovation Center at Duke University in the US

22 Dec 2021 4 4

Lawrence Gostin

Inserted 2 years ago

“By virtually every measure, global vaccine distribution and equity have been an abysmal failure and a deep moral crisis. I think that's unquestionable.”

Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law

22 Dec 2021 2 2

Bonnie Henry

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are learning about this virus after two years, almost two years, and we know that it is inevitable now that most of us in the province will be exposed at some point, the way that this virus is being transmitted, this strain of the virus is being transmitted in communities across the province. It is over time very likely that all of us will have exposure to it. How it affects us depends on our own actions and what we are doing.”

Cbc

Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia

21 Dec 2021 5 4

Sabrina Wong

Inserted 2 years ago

“This is really about a harm reduction approach. So no matter what the new restrictions will be, there will be some who will not change their behaviour and want to see their family and friends. So wouldn't it be better to test and find COVID before the person enters the gathering or the event? We know that people's mental health has deteriorated and many people are emotionally burned out. So rapid antigen testing can be used to ease people's anxiety about whether they have COVID. It's not going to go away very quickly, this pandemic, so people need to start to feel more confident in going about their daily lives.”

Cbc

Professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Nursing

21 Dec 2021 5 4

Joe Biden

Inserted 2 years ago

“If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned. Your choice can be the difference between life and death.”

President of the United States

21 Dec 2021 2 3

Craig Spencer

Inserted 2 years ago

“After two years of dealing with this virus - working extra shifts, watching families sob on grainy FaceTime calls while their loved ones slipped away-many health-care workers are already in a dark place. With a new wave of COVID upon us, we face this grim truth: You can't surge a circuit that's been burned out. For frontline providers, there's simply no new fuse that can fix the fact that we're fried.”

Theatlantic

Emergency-medicine physician and director of global health in emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center

21 Dec 2021 5 2

Scott Morrison

Inserted 2 years ago

“We're not going back to lockdowns. We're going forward to live with this virus with common sense and responsibility.”

Australian Prime Minister

21 Dec 2021 5 2

Soumya Swaminathan

Inserted 2 years ago

“Everybody wants to know about the boosters, when it's needed, how often it's going to be needed and so on. There are many factors that can influence this. One is the type of vaccine. We know that each vaccine has a slightly different performance and longer follow up is telling us the efficacy of the vaccines, particularly in preventing severe disease but also in preventing infection. The other big variable of course is, the variants of the virus that we are seeing. And we've seen that different variants have different abilities to be neutralized by the antibodies, or be able to overcome the immune response, like Omicron seems to be doing because of the mutations it has it seems to be pretty good at evading immune responses. The third factor of course is the biology of the individual, the age of the person, how strong the immune system is, whether there are other underlying illnesses which impact the immune system. And therefore when we make recommendations for a course of vaccination, we have to take into consideration all of these factors. There is some data now to show that there is a slippage in the protection due to the different vaccines at about six months or so, particularly for protection from infection, less so for protection from disease; they are still performing at 80%. But with Omicron again, the initial data coming in obviously showing that Omicron is very successfully able to evade immune responses and therefore needs higher levels of antibodies. For now we believe that boosters may be needed for people who have weaker immune systems, the older individuals, the more vulnerable people and whether a third dose of the vaccine is going to be it, or whether they are going to be need for additional vaccines like influenza every year, every couple of years, it's too early to say and we need to really follow the science on that.”

Twitter

World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist

20 Dec 2021 5 3

Amesh Adalja

Inserted 2 years ago

“All of us have a date with omicron. If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life, omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated.”

20 Dec 2021 3 3

Chris Hipkins

Inserted 2 years ago

“All of the evidence so far points to Omicron being the most transmissible COVID-19 variant yet. There's no doubt this is disappointing and will upset many holiday plans, but it's important to set these changes out clearly today so they can have time to consider those plans.”

New Zealand Minister for COVID-19 Response

20 Dec 2021 3 3

Francis Collins

Inserted 2 years ago

“Even if it has a somewhat lower risk of severity, we could be having a million cases a day if we're not really attentive to all of those mitigation strategies. And you know a small fraction of a big number is still a really big number. I don't know that we'll hit that but there are certainly projections that say that could happen with a virus that seems to doubling most places where it's been every two to four days. I know people are tired of this. I'm tired of it too, believe me. But the virus is not tired of us.”

Outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health

20 Dec 2021 2 3

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“China must be more forthcoming with data and information related to the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future.”

Director-General of the World Health Organization

20 Dec 2021 3 1

Christian Dubé

Inserted 2 years ago

“The epidemiological situation is critical. The community spread is astounding. Our health system is already in crisis … and things aren't getting better. Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions are on the rise.”

Cbc

Quebec Health Minister

20 Dec 2021 6 4

Peter Jüni

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's not a recipe against the current tidal wave that Ontario is starting to face already, and other provinces will follow. We invest with the booster so that when we loosen restrictions again … we start to see protections through the boosters. That's the idea. We need interventions to blunt the wave so that we have a bit more time so that … we are able to roll [boosters] out and that they are able to start to develop their effectiveness.”

Cbc

Director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table

19 Dec 2021 4 5

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“This virus is extraordinary.”

Top US infectious disease expert

19 Dec 2021 4 2

Leif Johansson

Inserted 2 years ago

“What we did not expect was to see vaccine nationalism building the way it did. That has limited our ability to cross-supply between different continents, which I hope we won't see again.”

Thenationalnews

AstraZeneca non-executive chairman

19 Dec 2021 1 1

World Health Organization

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity. There are still limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for Omicron.”

Statement by World Health Organization

18 Dec 2021 3 4

Michael Osterholm

Inserted 2 years ago

“I think we're really just about to experience a viral blizzard. I think in the next three to eight weeks, we're going to see millions of Americans are going to be infected with this virus, and that will be overlaid on top of delta, and we're not yet sure exactly how that's going to work out. What you have here right now is a potential perfect storm. I've been very concerned about the fact that we could easily see a quarter or a third of our health care workers quickly becoming cases themselves.”

American epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota

17 Dec 2021 5 3

Sandra Ciesek

Inserted 2 years ago

“A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security. While it is important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron. It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense. The virus moves faster than that.”

Dw

Director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt

17 Dec 2021 7 6

Robert Wachter

Inserted 2 years ago

“When I go to the store this afternoon, what helps me is to know how much COVID is in my community. There will not be one state of the pandemic. There will be different states for different people and for different regions. And that's going to be the way it is for the foreseeable future.”

Chair of the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco

17 Dec 2021 3 2

David Dowdy

Inserted 2 years ago

“Even if that immunity is not as good against Omicron, it doesn't mean that it's worthless. And that immunity is more effective against serious illness than it is against getting infected at all.”

Infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins

17 Dec 2021 3 3

Tom Frieden

Inserted 2 years ago

“People will need to be ready to adjust when the next variant comes along. You need to recognize that at certain times, it's going to be safer to do things than at other times.”

Chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health initiative, and former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

17 Dec 2021 3 3

Amesh Adalja

Inserted 2 years ago

“There's always going to be a baseline number of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. A lot of people haven't come to terms with that.”

Infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

17 Dec 2021 3 2

Angela Rasmussen

Inserted 2 years ago

“People are sick of the pandemic and God knows I am, but unless we can get some urgency to compel our leaders to take action, I really see 2022 being a lot of more of the same that we saw in 2021.”

Virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada

17 Dec 2021 2 3

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“Besides the toll of suffering and death which will inevitably go up if in fact we have that convergence in the winter months of flu and omicron and delta, we could get our hospital systems overwhelmed. With omicron breathing down our back, things could get really bad, particularly for the unvaccinated. The vaccinated and those who are boosted I believe will be relatively well protected, at least against severe disease.”

Top US infectious disease expert

16 Dec 2021 6 5

Kim Woo-joo

Inserted 2 years ago

“The effect of the measures will be small. They won't drastically slow down the spread until the year-end. Things may get worse given the cold winter weather and the increasing cases of the Omicron variant.”

Koreatimes

Infectious disease specialist at Korea University Guro Hospital

16 Dec 2021 3 4

Moon Jae-in

Inserted 2 years ago

“The government has failed to curb the surge in critically ill patients and secure enough hospital beds during the phased return to normalcy.”

Koreatimes

President of South Korea

16 Dec 2021 3 3

Roberto Bruzzone

Inserted 2 years ago

“It looks like the whole world overheated and is no longer able to address the pandemic, which is a serious issue, in a more balanced way. Societies had no choice but to co-exist with the virus. Yet we need to vaccinate, adapt vaccines, as we do for influenza, and carry on. The real preparedness is not to impose lockdowns, masks outdoors, but make sure that the health system can cope with surges in medical demands, regardless of the nature of the disease.”

Co-director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole in Hong Kong

16 Dec 2021 9 1

Jeremy Kamil

Inserted 2 years ago

“These authors found Omicron replicates fantastically well - even far better than either Delta or the original virus - in bronchial tissue. This could in some ways contribute to an advantage in spread/transmission between people. Of course, a huge component of Omicron's transmissibility in real life is going to be its potential to escape neutralising antibodies that protect against infect in the first place. It's very likely spreading well even between vaccinated people, especially those who haven't recently gotten a booster shot.”

Associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport

15 Dec 2021 8 3

Michael Chan Chi-wai

Inserted 2 years ago

“It is also noted that by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from the Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.”

Associate Professor University of Hong Kong - Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences

15 Dec 2021 6 2

Justin Trudeau

Inserted 2 years ago

“Canadians have been attentive [to COVID-19] for months and months. We've seen that people know how to do the right thing. They're going to have to be vigilant and make careful decisions about Christmas.”

Cbc

Prime Minister of Canada

15 Dec 2021 3 2

Peter Jüni

Inserted 2 years ago

“Most people in Canada, like other wealthy countries, haven't been infected with COVID-19. So if they lack vaccine protection they are especially vulnerable to Omicron. What really worries me is that people are asleep at the steering wheel, internationally. They have wishful thinking it will be mild ... This is not a realistic attitude. I'm completely exhausted. I've had it. I'm done completely. But the virus doesn't care.”

Director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table

15 Dec 2021 5 4

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet. Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril. Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”

Director-General of the World Health Organization

14 Dec 2021 5 2

Boris Johnson

Inserted 2 years ago

“No one should be in any doubt: there is a tidal wave of Omicron coming. I'm afraid we're now facing an emergency in our battle with the new variant Omicron, and we must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection to keep our friends and loved ones safe.”

UK Prime Minister

12 Dec 2021 2 2

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences.”

Director-General of WHO

12 Dec 2021 3 2

Kate O'Brien

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have to make sure that it [higher shipments] continues. As we head into whatever the Omicron situation is going to be, there is risk that the global supply is again going to revert to high-income countries hoarding vaccines as they seek to protect their ability to inoculate their citizens.”