Quotes by Nathan Wolfe

About Nathan Wolfe:

Nathan D. Wolfe is an American virologist. He is currently Director of Global Viral and the Lorry I. Lokey Visiting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Wolfe spent over eight years conducting biomedical research in both sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2007, he founded Global Viral with the goal of developing an early warning system for pandemics to monitor the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans. The initiative currently coordinates a staff of over 100 scientists in China, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Laos, Gabon, Central African Republic, Malaysia, Madagascar and Sao Tome. He also directs Metabiota which offers both governmental and corporate services for biological threat evaluation and management.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

About 20 percent of the genetic information in your nose doesn't match anything that we've ever seen before.

Nathan Wolfe

Don't assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story. Go after the dark matter, in whatever field you choose to explore.

Nathan Wolfe

We may have charted all the continents on the planet, and we may have discovered all the mammals, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing left to explore on Earth.

Nathan Wolfe

Many people on our planet right now despair; they think we've reached a point where we've discovered most of the things. I'm going tell you right now: Please don't despair.

Nathan Wolfe

If you find diseases before they've really emerged, you can control them early on, before you get a major epidemic.

Nathan Wolfe

With epidemics, people have been standing on the shore, waiting for the gusher to hit the ocean. But to prevent epidemics, you have to look at the various little sources that feed into the river.

Nathan Wolfe

We know there are certain types of viruses that are nasty - influenza, for instance, is an area that is not a blindside. But a lot of viruses have come out of nowhere, like H.I.V., or to a certain extent SARS. Because we know we have the potential to...

Nathan Wolfe

The features of globalization have huge consequences on pandemics. It just connects us so much more closely... And as a consequence, every one of these viruses that passes from animals to humans has the capacity to infect all of us.

Nathan Wolfe

Swine flu is not an anomaly. We know that swine flu - like the vast majority of new outbreaks - comes from animals. We should be monitoring those animals and the humans that come into contact with them, so we can catch these viruses early, before the...

Nathan Wolfe

There are commonalities among all the pandemics that occur, and we can learn from them. One commonality is that they all come from animals. And the other commonality is that we wait too long.

Nathan Wolfe

We live in a world fraught with risk from new pandemics. Fortunately, we also now live in an era with the tools to build a global immune system.

Nathan Wolfe

As a species, I think we have no choice but to try and forecast pandemics.

Nathan Wolfe

If we can contain and monitor animal viruses at an earlier stage - when they're first entering human populations, preferably before they've had a chance to become human-adapted, certainly before they've had a chance to spread - we can head off pandem...

Nathan Wolfe

If we can provide even a few months of early warning for just one pandemic, the benefits will outweigh all the time and energy we're devoting. Imagine preventing health crises, not just responding to them.

Nathan Wolfe

The reality is: By the time swine flu got on the radar screen of global public health, it had already spread. It was already in the States, it was in Mexico, it was in New Zealand. By the time it reaches that point, you've lost the ability to contain...

Nathan Wolfe

The world can now maintain an acute infection in a way that is unprecedented in the history of life on our planet.

Nathan Wolfe

When there is an influenza threat, drop everything and focus on risks from influenza pandemics. When SARS spreads, focus on unknown respiratory diseases. This approach helps to quell public concern, but it's a hugely inefficient way to deal with futu...

Nathan Wolfe

Pandemics do not occur randomly. From malaria and influenza to AIDS and SARS, the lethal microbes have come, in the first instance, from animals, especially wild animals. And we increasingly know which parts of the world pose the greatest risk for fu...

Nathan Wolfe

We've put huge resources into predicting tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes. HIV/AIDS is like an earthquake that's lasted 30 years and touched every country on the planet. We have such incredible capacity to think about the future, it's time we us...

Nathan Wolfe

If an alien visited Earth, they would take some note of humans, but probably spend most of their time trying to understand the dominant form of life on our planet - microorganisms like bacteria and viruses.

Nathan Wolfe

Author Bio

  • NameNathan Wolfe
  • DescriptionAmerican virologist
  • BornAugust 24, 1970
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionEpidemiologist