Epidemiologists

"All scientific work is incomplete – whether it be observational or experimental. All scientific work is liable to be upset or modified by advancing knowledge. That does not confer upon us a freedom to ignore the knowledge we already have, or to postpone the action that it appears to demand at a given time."

"There are two keys to tackling the (COVID-19) epidemic: early detection and early isolation. They are the most primitive and most effective methods."

"We have developed an effective treatment plan (to patients contracting COVID-19) based on our experience of dealing with SARS, by employing various life support methods to (achieve) a higher rate of recovery."

"We don't know why it (COVID-19) is so contagious, so that's a big problem."

"I am so proud of him (Li Wenliang)."

"I hope this (COVID-19) outbreak or this event may be over in something like April (2020)."

"As long as we are not anxious and put the right resources in the right places, there will be no shortage of resources. However, if we randomly scramble over over them, there will be a shortage of resources. At this time, how do we educate the people to believe in the government? Sometimes the government is imperfect, sometimes it makes mistakes, but everyone should work together."

"If we can protect kids (from COVID-19 pandemic) – one, it's good for them, but two, it's good for the population. If it does penetrate the pediatric population, that might amplify the outbreak."

"Three years ago, experts were saying that bat coronaviruses could become a new pandemic. Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in was potentially a global threat. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House’s response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US’s lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. This was foreseeable, and foreseen, weeks and months ago, and only now is the White House coming out of denial and heading straight into saying it could not have been foreseen."

"History tells us that it is likely the next big outbreak will be something we have not seen before. It may seem strange to be adding an 'X' but the point is to make sure we prepare and plan flexibly in terms of vaccines and diagnostic tests. We want to see 'plug and play' platforms developed which will work for any, or a wide number of diseases; systems that will allow us to create countermeasures at speed. [...] As the ecosystem and human habitats change there is always the risk of disease jumping from animals to humans. It’s a natural process and it is vital that we are aware and prepare. It is probably the greatest risk."

"The intensity of animal and human contact is becoming much greater as the world develops. This makes it more likely new diseases will emerge but also modern travel and trade make it much more likely they will spread. [...] We have these outbreaks and the international community flies in but in the case of Ebola the disease went under the radar for four months. It’s really crucial we start to change that and make sure local health care infrastructure is better developed. People on the ground are vital. They are our first line of defence."

"Whether it will be contained or not, this outbreak is rapidly becoming the first true pandemic challenge that fits the disease X category."

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"Many countries seem to be completely abandoning the idea that we have some control over this (SARS-CoV-2) virus. We seem to be very much caught in the headlines that there is nothing we can do, it's inevitable that we will going to see these waves and it's inevitable that hospitals will fill up and inevitable that the graveyards are going to fill up. It's not inevitable, it can be stopped, but it's going to take yet another effort from communities that are exhausted."

"One remaining uncertainty is how severe the disease caused by the omicron variant is compared to disease caused by previous variants. Whilst it may take several weeks to fully understand this, governments will need to put in place plans now to mitigate any potential impact. Our results demonstrate the importance of delivering booster doses as part of the wider public health response."

"Nothing reduces the risks to zero other than standing in a meadow completely on your own ad infinitum with nobody coming within three metres of you."

"So this is like… getting to the end of the play-off final, it's gone to penalties, the first player goes up and scores a goal ... You haven't won the cup yet, but what it does is, it tells you that the goalkeeper can be beaten."

"Before you know it, we have an army of strong and powerful women that can stand and compete anywhere in the world."

"Information is out there but local communities don’t have access to it, and they will rely on the next alternative."

"Over the years, people have gotten inappropriate medical advice from some practitioners, especially at the local council level and of course the consequence was disastrous to their health."

"I incorporated it in 2016, and it has grown beyond my wildest dreams."

"Government’s focus mainly on research findings from institutes is not encouraging to the young ones who have fresh and modern ideas that can help fast tract socio-economic development."

"Also, available seminars and conferences are expensive and not flexible, so to address this problem, I designed O’track to enable health workers to easily choose courses online."

"Stay faithful to God and He will finish what He started in you. Don't settle for being self-made."

"“Fogarty training has given us Africans the skills we need to conduct research, document the illness and look at possible interventions that work in Africa. There are people who are alive today because of Fogarty's input in terms of capacity-building, both in America and around the world. Just think about it: the first cases of HIV were described in the early ‘80s, and in just over 30 years, we are talking of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV on the African continent. Fogarty has changed the face of HIV medicine.”"

"“I also formed life-long friendships with colleagues at the University of Washington, which nurtured the research creativity of the team.”"

"I’m a scientist, you can see them blinking."

"I am one of those people who put 100% into whatever I am doing, so side hustles would never work for me. It has to be all in!"

"What COVID-19 has taught us is that health system resilience is the job of everyone."

"We’re just not utilizing [vaccines] most effectively around the world. I mean 30% of the world still has not received a single vaccine. in every country in the world, including in the US, we’re missing key demographics."

"We didn’t need to have this level of death and devastation, but we’re dealing with it, and we are doing our best to minimize the impact going forward."

"I’m struck by how people actually are wearing masks wearing a mask below your chin is useless. And it gives you a false sense of security that you have something on that is protecting you. It will not ... Basically, we are asking everyone to play a part in this."

"This is what coding agents are actually good for: not replacing programmers, but replacing the programmer-as-bureaucrat."

"To me, agentic AI has always been about large scale emergence and self-organisation. This isn’t a matter of degree but qualitatively different. If you can draw it on a whiteboard, it may well be useful, possibly make decent dinner reservations, but it will not ever exhibit meaningful emergence (if you don’t believe me, try to draw every neuron of a modern convolutional neural network). It may be useful, but it’s not what I mean when I talk about agentic AI."

"At no point am I talking about a notion of what the ‘right’ job is for agents, simulation or action. Rather, I’d like to see both coexist in productive tension, each making the other more effective. The simulation swarms dream of a diverging universe of futures that action agents sample, enact and critique in view of their perception of reality. Like the neighbour’s annoying lawn mower on a Sunday afternoon, those observations filter back into the dreams. Something mostly akin to insight, maybe even wisdom, emerges – of the kind that neither breed of agents with a limited purview could on its own attain."

"I do think that the future of LLMs is not in the direction of the ‘big’ LLMs that are currently in vogue, but in the direction of smaller, more specialised LLMs that can interact with us, and with each other, in the role-defined and goal-directed agentic manner in which we as humans have interacted for our history."

"Somewhere — perhaps in a tropical rainforest, perhaps in the thawing permafrost soil or maybe in one of our own cities — the next pathogen to try humanity’s resilience and resourcefulness is slowly emerging."

"Despite the advances of modern medicine, the challenges of global epidemics have only become greater. Habitat loss of viral reservoir species increases the likelihood of zoonotic spillover events. Our global trade and transportation networks enable pathogens to make their way around the world in 24 hours. Climate change is disrupting fragile ecosystems and global poverty, especially urban poverty, exacerbates the problem."

"It often takes years to create a viable antibody test as accurate as PCR-based testing. But in less than six weeks, biotech companies—approached by the U.S. government through the White House-created public-private partnership—have already seen their efforts bear fruit. This is a tribute to the incredible creative potential of the biotech sector, but it also shows the power of free enterprise, unshackled by government bureaucracy. It took more than America’s best scientists to rise to the occasion: it took a regulatory regime to let them do so."

"Today, the efforts waged to curb the COVID-19 pandemic may be the first example of a large-scale, global data-driven response to a worldwide crisis, and as such perhaps the first war of data science."

"The small town of Gunnison, Colorado, lies at the bottom of the valley carved by the Gunnison River into the Rocky Mountains. It is now crossed by the Colorado stretch of U.S. Highway 50, but in 1918 the town was mainly supplied by train and two at best mediocre roads. When the 1918–19 influenza pandemic reached Colorado as an unwelcome stowaway on a train carrying servicemen from Montana to Boulder, the town of Gunnison took decisive action. As the November 1, 1918, edition of the Gunnison News-Champion documents, a Dr. Rockefeller from the nearby town of Crested Butte was “given entire charge of both towns and county to enforce a quarantine against all the world”. He instituted a strict reverse quarantine regime that almost entirely isolated Gunnison from the rest of the world. Gunnison became one of the few communities that largely escaped the ravages of the influenza pandemic, at least in the beginning. In an instructive example of the limited human patience for the social, psychological, and economic disruption of quarantine, adherence eventually waned, and the front page of the Gunnison News-Champion’s March 14, 1919, issue reports that the influenza pandemic got to Gunnison, too Nevertheless, Gunnison had a very lucky escape, of a population of over 6900 (including the county), there were only a few cases and a single death."

"We may think of maps and mapping as an objective process, but that would be an illusion. What gets mapped, and more importantly, what does not, is a product of various social, economic, and political phenomena. Quite apart from border disputes and contentious sovereignty, mapping also reflects political priorities. Creating the survey data that can be used in maps is expensive, and large-scale mapping endeavors are typically the preserve of states, whose ability to deliver that data often depends on resources that compete with other governmental priorities. This is true especially in resource-constrained settings."

"The term 'natural immunity' has been often used to express post-infectious immunity and differentiate it from vaccine-induced immunity. In practice, this is not necessarily helpful. There is nothing fundamentally "unnatural" in vaccine-induced immunity, and while the minutiae of natural infection and vaccine-induced immunity might differ, this is a quintessentially unhelpful notion."

"At the time of writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging for almost three years. It has cost five million people their lives. The toll of destruction, the human cost, and the economic losses remain to be counted. Few outbreaks in history leave this kind of lasting mark on society: the Plague of Athens (430 BC), the Plague of Galen (165–180 AD), the Plague of Justinian (541–549), the Black Death (1346–1353), the Spanish Flu (1918–1920), and the HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981 onwards) are the most notable exceptions. COVID-19 has now joined the ranks of these sad episodes of human history. Yet humans are not helpless against pandemics. Amidst all the destruction and grief of the COVID-19 pandemic, science has been a bright, shining beacon showing how humanity can prevail against fearful odds."

"Computational models of infectious disease can make all the difference in our response to pandemics. As habitat loss and climate change make zoonotic spillover events increasingly more likely, COVID-19 is almost certainly not the last major pan- demic of the 21st century. In fact, it is reasonable to assume that such outbreaks will become increasingly frequent. Computational models can be powerful weapons in our fight against pandemics."

"Hesiod’s description of Pandora’s box reminds us that though we live in a world of danger, where infectious diseases continue to maim and kill millions, especially across the developing world, we are not without hope. Part of that hope is our ability as humans to bring mathematics, genomics, data science, statistics, and computational science to bear on this problem and call these altogether rather disparate disciplines into humanity’s service against disease. Infectious disease modeling is part of that wider story of hope."

"Some pathogens live exciting double lives, with entirely separate life cycles and be- haviors in different animals."

"The same dynamics that keep us safe in a pack, herd or society, and comfortable in our family, friends or neighbours also serves as a way for pathogenic transmissions. The warmth of a human dwelling or the immense complexity of a bee hive is also an opportunity for a pathogen to tap into a susceptible population. Network interdiction is a comprehensive name for algorithms intended to disrupt such connections."

"As far as women go, there's a lot more we still need to do."

"The vulnerability of young women is very much tied into gender power differences in society."

"For most of my life I thought about science and its application to leaving people better off, so I wanted to be a scientist and do something that would help people."

"Women continue to inspire me to persist with my scientific endeavors. While some progress has been made, much more remains to be done to ensure a non-sexist and just society."

"When we come together with unity of purpose, we can achieve great things."

"When solutions are not shared fairly or equitably, the pathogen thrives, as we witnessed during COVID-19, and another example where sharing information openly as South African scientists did during the emergence of the Omicron variant resulted in a travel ban by several countries in the Global North for the entire southern African region."

"We have to balance mission-oriented investments with curiosity investments, because the discoveries from curiosity research enable the innovation for mission-driven science. Undertaking biomedical research is high-risk, and more often than not does not produce the desired outcomes. However, we learn and understand the phenomenon better and move forward incrementally. This persistence and perseverance is a hallmark of scientific endeavours together with vigorous debates and discussions of findings."

"And it’s not a token affirmative action process, but creating the space for women’s voices to be heard, women to contribute in the context of complex challenges that face us is no longer a luxury – we need all voices heard and opportunities created for all to contribute."

"Environments can be created where women feel they belong, and we can see from the 20 years of CAPRISA’s existence how creating a supportive space for women has enabled a lot of women to thrive, to make their contributions and be constantly making cutting-edge contributions. So this is a concrete example. It’s not just rhetoric; it's not idealism that we can make it happen, and we need to illustrate that more and more because that means inclusivity at all levels, which bodes well for human security and planetary health."

"We focused on developing and testing technologies that empowered women."

"We can’t think of problems in the global south as just problems for the global south."

"Cold call! Don't wait to be introduced to people. The enthusiasm for what you do will open doors."

"Don’t fear the path less trodden; rather, choose it because that’s what science is all about. In terms of personal qualities and mindset, you need sheer persistence and the ability to remember your ultimate goal of why you do what you do."

"We’re all connected, and we need to start acting like we’re all part of the same ecosystem. We have to address the significant inequalities among countries and regions. Ultimately, doing so will bring us a collective increase in well-being."

"What begins as effort eventually becomes identity."

"Care and concern for youth is more so an investment rather than a direct expense."

"Cancer is not an invader. It is a mirror."

"Disparities in health outcomes underscore the need for equitable public health interventions that account for sociocultural dynamics and structural inequities."

"The burden of disease stands squarely at the intersection of prevailing community behaviors and public health readiness."

"Addiction does not always kill in dramatic fashion. Sometimes, it kills slowly and invisibly."

"The social environment has a major influence on health behaviors that in turn are associated with risk for cancer."

"What we crave, and how often we give in to those cravings, leaves a trace. A molecular record."

"The uneven affordability of essential cancer medications across regions illustrates the persistent challenge of ensuring equitable global health access."

"Understanding life’s inherent propensity to preserve itself is quintessential to our understanding of even the most modern aspects of healthcare."

"The terrain in which cancer grows is shaped by everyday behavior."

"Growing evidence indicates that once diseases like cancer or cardiovascular disease are diagnosed, these same exposures may be associated with improved survival outcomes."

"Our initial estimates showed that 300 million to 500 million Indians were likely to be infected with the coronavirus by the end of July. Most of the cases would be without symptoms or with mild infections, but about a tenth — 30 million to 50 million — would most likely be severe."

"Some don’t want lockdowns because of the economic and human costs. But they also don’t want there to be a flood of cases into hospitals. Perhaps they are counting on chloroquine or BCG vaccination to save the day. Unfortunately, Covid-19 cannot be dealt with through wishful thinking."

"Many are saying these projected numbers by Ramanan Laxminarayan will cause panic. I disagree. I think him telling us that India could get 300 to 500 million #Corona cases by July is a call to action. It brings home gravity of what could happen if we don't isolate diligently."

"Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan suggests that if mathematical models applied in US & UK were applied to India, we could be looking at 300 million #Covid19 infections."

"My father taught history at Calcutta University but he had so many diverse interests. He was also a film critic, a theatre critic, and he sang very well. He wrote poems and novels, but he did it in a way that was rather wonderful: he'd suddenly say, ‘oh I wrote this poem yesterday’ or he would say, ‘oh by the way, I'm going to be in this play’. There was this sense that you can just do what you want to do."

"It has been an honor and privilege to work on behalf of D.C. residents through a leading institution and with dedicated colleagues who truly embody our commitment to justice. As long as health disparities continue to impact populations in this city, we have more work to do."

"There are several cancer prevention screenings that need to be utilized to save lives"

"Pap test, colorectal cancer screening, lung cancer screening and HPV testing need to be addressed and incorporated into the communities we serve."

"Towards that end, we at CBCC have already begun to expand our efforts."

"I want viewers to see a glimpse into the experiences of our elders, and then, perhaps, we can extend more grace and care for a group of people surviving a world that changed around them."

"I think science is like tofu"

"Whatever seasonings you put in it, it will just sop it right up. So, if you season it with racism, it will become racist. It’s incumbent upon me as a scientist to choose my marinade differently … to season it with multiplicity, season it with different thoughts, season it with change."

"I started thinking maybe I am a bad kid."

"In the third grade, one of my teachers told me I wasn’t going to be good for anything but prostitution, and I said well maybe."

"Contact tracing is an activity that is commonly done to interrupt transmission of communicable diseases, or diseases that are passed from one person to another. It is critically important in interrupting transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19."

"These two terms are commonly confused. Contact tracing is a very specific method for public health intervention that requires in-depth investigation of potential exposure, risk for severe disease, and risk for transmission of the virus to others."

"Alternatively, exposure notification is usually conducted completely digitally on an opt-in basis. This process involves the use of smartphones to create a log of potential close contacts."

"The door closes and our African nations are left outside with tea and croissants while the decisions are being made inside. We must change that"

"A forum like this could help us plan for those engagements so the teams that go can have a proper African perspective."

"...sustainable development, it's very much a thinking of the development part without putting sustainability and I feel that the 'be sustainable' is very silent. So my... my final words would be let us try to put that 'sustainable' back into sustainable development. Thank you"."

"Every human being has God-given potential which is theirs to exploit. My background, which I had originally considered a hindrance, became the ideal sword to empower and inspire others who see themselves in me."

"True mentorship dismantles barriers and creates equitable pathways for innovation."

"Leadership is about creating opportunities for others to excel."

"Together, we will build a legacy of excellence that resonates across borders. I am ready for the CHALLENGE!."

"Believe in yourself: When I was young, I never thought I could be where I am today. I doubted myself. I lacked self-confidence."

"We drive transformative and sustainable change by supporting research that changes lives, informs policy, and empowers communities. Africa must see itself not merely as a consumer of knowledge, but as a producer of solutions."

"Transplantation has definitely improved with time, but still a lot of patients die after this procedure. We still have an average five year survival after these procedures of 50 or 60 percent, so we still have a lot to do."

"Even being in medicine, you don’t know all the ins and outs, but I saw it from the other direction."

"Chronological age is kind of a washy marker. It doesn’t tell you the full story."

"We think that this research will probably introduce a paradigm shift in donor selection. This can help get us away from the idea of chronological age and towards building a set of molecular markers that can define the cellular age of a donor."

"The beauty of this data is we can look for molecular signatures for better donor selection and build personalized risk calculators for recipients. We want to tailor treatment to the particular patient."

"The Nigerian government should implement the home management of malaria scale-up plan. Health care interventions are feasible at the community level and laypersons, if trained and supervised, could contribute to the health care of their communities."

"Getting to the people in the hard-to-reach areas and rural communities that lack amenities and drugs is an effective way of curtailing malaria in the country."

"If we have the community people doing it correctly themselves, it would go a long way in reducing the burden of malaria."

"If every home does this and does not have to go to the hospital to treat uncomplicated malaria, it would go a long way to reduce the burden of malaria."

"We need more research to understand why the control measures put in place have not reduced the burden and why interventions are not deployed as well as how they can be deployed"

"We can find a cure for HIV/AIDS. In Uganda, we are not short of brains, we are not short of ideas, we are just short of funding. We’re always limping. And it needs to stop."

"What we do in Uganda, and what affects people in Uganda, will eventually affect you, no matter where you live. If you have a long vision, you should be able to see this, but some people don’t."

"HIV/AIDS is a global concern, not only an African problem."

"Without any doubt, this honorary degree will increase the visibility of the work that we are doing at JCRC."

"This is an individual honour, but I don’t work alone. I work with a team and so this will exponentially increase the visibility of what we are doing to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

"There are more than those who have already started on treatment. And therefore, my message was to request for continued support to Africa so that we can treat the huge numbers of people, who are still in desperate need of life-saving medicines."

"They wouldn’t be so many as to overwhelm the budget. We should be able to handle all of those patients who are in immediate need of treatment for their very survival."

"The numbers, not only in Uganda, but across Africa, are still many."

"It’s not a Ugandan-peculiar situation, but certainly there is need for increased funding."

"If we don’t get increased support, not only from PEPFAR, but the global community, we may lose ground and start losing the impressive gains that we have achieved over the last seven years."

"And yet those in immediate need of antiretroviral therapy are estimated to be over seven million."

"I would have wanted to know the motive of the scientists who knew it would take long but transmitted inadequate information."

"The media is key to creating this link between science and society as science not communicated is science lost. Publishing findings in journals is good but the information therein never reaches the public. By reporting about scientific developments, the media contribute to public understanding of and engagement with science and technology."