Ending Pandemics--a conversation with Larry Brilliant!

Larry Brilliant, MD, MPH Chair of Ending Pandemics

Gave a great presentation, in conversation with Buck Institute

as part of the great series they are offering of Online Conversations at the Buck:

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/covid-webinar/

This session in particular can be found here:

https://buck2020.extendedsession.com/session/larry-brilliant/

He really speaks to how we as citizens are all involved in action to preserve the health of our society, and how we will have increasing actions to take as we move forward.

In this way, it further points to how Citizen Science for Health will continue to be more and more relevant for our time.

Here are some of our favorite quotes from Larry, who was truly brilliant!:

“Social or physical distancing is plan C. It is weak tea..it is swiss cheese.

Plan A (which we failed to do) was testing and contact tracing…..”

“We gave a virus that grows exponentially a six week head start—not a good strategy!”

“In the time it took us to do 15,00 tests, South Korea doubled down and did over 300,000 tests.

They vigorously defended their country, and they (and their economy) have survived.”

“We don’t even have a test of the tests. FDA has only approved 5 tests, but have allowed another 200 tests. We have the wild west of testing….”

“We fumbled the testing, at (my beloved) CDC, where I trained at….

This was a serious mistake. We are going to be paying for it for a long time….”

“We are doing vaccine safety and efficacy tests in parallel….this is like Silicon Valley—it is wonderful! I am really optimistic that we will have a (good) vaccine.”

“I am aspirational that we will have a vaccine that produces better immunity than the disease, within 12 to 18 months.”

“MERS conferred immunity for 3 years, SARS for 2 years. 4 other coronaviruses (that cause 40-50% of the colds we get) confer 1-2 years of immunity. Looking at the family of Cornoviruses, it is reasonable to assume Covid-19 will produce immunity something like that. “

“What would I say to someone with a governor who is opening up? I would say get a different governor. What Georgia has done is unconscionable.”

“I think it’s going to be a while before anyone is getting on a closed metal cylinder with hundreds of people where you don’t know their immune status.”

“When things are opened up, I am afraid the rules are going to be vague….we are going to have to be our best selves.”

“I love those with the hashtag #iamwearingthisforafriend when they show their mask pictures .”

“As we face re-opening, we have to ask not just what can we do, but what should we do!”

“I think looking back five years from now, we will have had two more pandemics, but we will have met the challenges quickly …. This pandemic is going to rewrite history ….let us learn the lesson from this one, so that we only have this one”