Dick Thompson
Dick Thompson
Richard KnightThompson, Jr.was an American racecar driver. A Washington, D.C. dentist by trade, he is known as "The Flying Dentist". He won numerous Sports Car Club of Americachampionships and was inducted in the Corvette Hall of Fame. Thompson brought credibility to the Corvette as a world-class sports car. Active from the late 1950s until the 1970s, Thompson raced for several notable racers, including the factory Corvette team for John Fitch and Briggs Cunningham...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth9 July 1920
cannot disease guard until
We cannot let our guard down until this disease is put back in a box.
jump time virus
There is really no time frame. As long as the virus is circulating it could jump into humans.
almost birds cross died directly disease either exposed million taken three time
There have been something like 180 million birds that have died either directly from the disease or been culled because they were exposed to it. Yet it's taken us all this time -- more than two years, almost three years now -- to cross this barrier.
countries develop pandemic plan
We keep encouraging countries to develop a plan because a pandemic is inevitable.
laboratory reference viruses
Those viruses are in a WHO reference laboratory and are being studied.
birds disease fewer human identified million perspective
You have to put this in perspective: there have been 180 million birds that have been killed because of this disease and yet we've identified fewer than 200 human cases.
allow among animals bird change concern difficult disease easily flu move poultry trigger virus
Bird flu is a disease among animals; it's very difficult for this virus to move from poultry into humans. Our concern is that it will change in a way that will allow it to easily move between humans, and that will trigger a pandemic.
develop easily move virus worry
What this virus can't do now is move easily from person to person. We worry that it could develop this characteristic of human-to-human transmission.
almost pick
We think that this is the most reasoned position, ... you could pick almost any number.
cases five humans maybe
There have been four, maybe five cases of humans getting it from other humans,
concern definitely large number period relatively short time
There is definitely concern about Egypt. In a relatively short period of time we have what is really a large number of cases.
human low pandemic risk virus worried
But the risk is pretty much the same as it has been, it is very low to humans, but we're worried about the transformation of the virus into a human pandemic strain.
human move stress
Should this move from human to human -- and it hasn't yet, I want to stress that -- then it's going to be a real challenge.
carry dipping hopefully money
Now we're dipping into other funds. Hopefully as more money comes in, we'll be able to carry on more activities.