Seth Berkley Quotes

#1. The best vaccine imaginable is only valuable to the extent we get it to everyone who needs it.

Seth Berkley

#2. Science is one of the comparative advantages of our knowledge-based economy, and focusing on our prowess in providing better tools to address diseases of poverty is one of the best forms of foreign aid.

Seth Berkley

#3. In large part, thanks to widespread immunization, the number of young children dying each year has declined significantly, from approximately 14 million in 1979 to slightly less than eight million in 2010.

Seth Berkley

#4. I love science, and I believe in it. I have a faith that science can solve problems and make the world a better place.

Seth Berkley

#5. History will not judge HIV/AIDS kindly ... the harshest words will be reserved for how the world responded, or rather failed to respond, to the epidemic.

Seth Berkley

#6. Investments in immunization yield a rate of return on a par with educating our children - and higher than nearly any other development intervention.

Seth Berkley

#7. When it comes to providing aid, developing innovations, and making bold steps that change the course of history, the United States is usually on the front lines.

Seth Berkley

#8. You can't stop wars to build tertiary teaching hospitals, but you can say, 'Let's stop for a couple of days to immunise the kids.' It has been done.

Seth Berkley

#9. As many times as [HIV] changes its clothes, it's still wearing the same socks, and now our job is to make sure we get the body to really hate those socks.

Seth Berkley

#10. Now, you might think of flu as just a really bad cold, but it can be a death sentence. Every year, 36,000 people in the United States die of seasonal flu. In the developing world, the data is much sketchier, but the death toll is almost certainly higher.

Seth Berkley

#11. When AIDS first appeared, people didn't know what it was. You'll remember that it affected mostly young gay men - it was actually called GRID for a short period of time: Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Syndrome - and people thought it actually might be recreational drugs or other types of toxins.

Seth Berkley

#12. The virus that causes AIDS is the trickiest pathogen scientists have ever confronted. It mutates furiously, it has decoys to evade the immune system, it attacks the very cells that are trying to fight it, and it quickly hides itself in your genome.

Seth Berkley

#13. You'd see little shallow graves, lined up, one after the other - babies. That's what happens when measles goes through a nutritionally deficient community. It's a horrible disease, and it spreads incredibly efficiently.

Seth Berkley

#14. New vaccines are being developed all the time, which could save many more lives and dramatically improve people's health. And this goes beyond the traditional burden of childhood infectious diseases.

Seth Berkley

#15. Leadership is about vision and responsibility, not power.

Seth Berkley

#16. We've actually eliminated Type II polio in the world, at least as far as we can tell.

Seth Berkley

#17. I was a serial monogamist.

Seth Berkley

#18. Healthy children are more likely to attend school and are better able to learn. Healthy workers are more productive. More productive economies mean greater stability in developing countries and improved security in the West.

Seth Berkley

#19. As variable as flu is, HIV makes flu look like the Rock of Gibraltar. The virus that causes AIDS is the trickiest pathogen scientists have ever confronted.

Seth Berkley

#20. The return on investment in global health is tremendous, and the biggest bang for the buck comes from vaccines. Vaccines are among the most successful and cost-effective health investments in history.

Seth Berkley