Viruses, Plagues, and History Quotes

“Even though the casualties, both military and civilian, were massive during World War I, deaths from the epidemic of influenza virus in 1918–19 surpassed the war’s toll: Some 40 to 50 million people died of influenza in less than a year (3–7). This was over four times the number of fatalities during the four years of war. An estimated one-fifth of the world’s human population was infected, and 2 to 3 percent of those infected died.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“The positive result came out only after the USDA’s inspector general required British tests that the USDA had said were unnecessary.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“By Amherst’s direction, hostile Indian tribes were provided with blankets contaminated with smallpox: “Could it not be contrived to send the smallpox among those disaffected tribes of Indians? We must, on this occasion, use every stratagem in our power to reduce them” (14).”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“Clearly, economic and political considerations have been more important to those in power and responsible for decisions in business and in government than the health of the public at large.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“In the end, the splendor of human history is not in wars won, dynasties formed, or financial empires built, but in improvement of the human condition.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“It is unfortunate but true that when culture or politics confronts science, culture and politics most often trumps until a disaster occurs.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History

“It is unfortunate but true that when culture or politics confronts science, culture and politics most often trumps until a disaster occurs.”
― Michael B a Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future

“pressure ventilation—pumping air into the paralyzed lungs through a tube inserted directly into the trachea—essentially adapting a technique of the surgical operating room to the polio ward. The subsequently designed mechanical positive-pressure respirators eventually replaced the iron lung tanks. However, even in 2007, some thirty to forty patients in the USA were still dependent on the iron lung. One, Dianne Odell of Jackson, Tennessee, who developed poliomyelitis at age three, has been in an iron lung for fifty-seven years, tethered to the machine twenty-four hours a day. The cost is $1,000/week”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future

“Oh Lord when will we at last understand that writers are not race horses competing for first place, but work horses pulling in common harness. The common cart of literature (35).” Indeed, what Yevtushenko said for poets can be a similar refrain”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future

“True, viruses are nothing more than a tiny bit of genetic material—a single kind of nucleic acid (segmented or nonsegmented, DNA or RNA) and a coat made of protein molecules. Viruses multiply according to the information contained in this nucleic acid. Everything other than the DNA or RNA is dispensable and serves primarily to ensure that the viral nucleic acid gets to the right place in the right sort of cell in the organism hosting the virus. Viruses”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future

“no smallpox vaccinations have been given worldwide since 1980, and in some countries like the USA, since the 1960s.”
― Michael B.A. Oldstone, Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future