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
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.
black caused deaths disease greatest happened infectious looked number recorded single
That's because we looked at what happened in the 1918 pandemic. That caused the greatest number of deaths ever recorded from an infectious disease in a single year, by far. More than the black plague, more than any other infectious disease,
numbers pick vast
You could pick any number?there's this vast range?and any of these numbers could be right,
almost nobody numbers pick range turn vast
You could pick almost any number. There is this vast range of numbers, absolutely. One of those numbers will turn out to be right. All of this is guesswork, nobody knows.
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.
cannot disease guard until
We cannot let our guard down until this disease is put back in a box.
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,