Quotes by John Oxford

“These are horrendous developments, whether youre a human or if youre a bird. Everyone wondered what would happen if avian influenza came to Africa, but no one really prepared. They waited. Now its there -- and this is not the most organized continent in the world.”

“We will probably learn a lot about bird migration by discovering where the H5N1 virus crops up.”

“The first pandemic of the 21st century could come from Africa, rather than Southeast Asia.”

“If it gets itself rooted there, it will be even more difficult to get it out than Southeast Asia.”

“That is the danger with influenza – compared to any other virus I know – that it can suddenly transform itself, reinvent itself and spread around the world.”

“What we do not want is either a New Orleans situation or a Tsunami situation -- that is you could predict something was going to happen but you dont do anything about it to prepare.”

“You can break the chain of transmission into the human population. The best place to break it is either to protect the domestic birds from the migratory birds. Or alternatively, remove humans from the domestic birds and break the chain of transmission and you are halfway there.”