Mike Osterholm

And Eric was very clear that there were people transmitting the virus who were themselves not yet ill.

And that if you looked at how the transmission was occurring, it was classic airborne transmission.

which shouldn't be surprising because, in fact, Canadian researchers have concluded that with SARS, there was airborne transmission.

It was just limited in terms of the number of people that actually did that.

So this wasn't a surprise to us.

And so actually on January 20th, I put out a statement on our website, still there, that said, wake up world, this is going to be the next pandemic.

And it's because, as you labeled it earlier, I call them viruses with wings.

These are the respiratory transmitted viruses that are airborne, the aerosol transmitted, and all the hygiene theater around plexiglass and all these things make no different.

All the things about wearing something in front of your face, a bandana, whatever, doesn't make a difference.

But as you just pointed out, on the other hand, N95s, when they're face-fitted, provide incredible protection for two people sitting in the same room for 24 hours.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, let me start out by first of all saying I was not a real popular guy in public health at the time.

I wrote an op-ed piece that was in the Washington Post with my co-author, Mark Olshaker, in which I said, do not do lockdowns.

This was in the middle of March in 2020.

And I said, the reason for that is you're conceptually not viewing what is about to happen.

namely the fact that this was not going to be like a bad, bad hurricane, which would blow through in 12 to 18 hours, and then you could go into recovery.

This was going to be a sustained situation that could last for several years.

If you're going to lock down right now, how do you unring a bell?

What's going to give you the opportunity then to release that lockdown with some alternative?

Because it's not.