“When one of them told me they would recommend a national vaccination program, I questioned this on the basis of the slim evidence at hand,” Edsall said. “He replied, ‘Look, I know that the chance of a pandemic may be as little as 1 to 50 or even less, but if you were the President of the United States and were told that the country faced a 1 to 50 or maybe even a 1 to 100 chance of a national disaster—which on the basis of all available evidence could largely be averted by a vaccine program—what would you say?’ I got the point.”
