Political Quotes

On the recordOctober 4, 2005
We are not ready for it. If you look at the last pandemic we had on U.S. soil, that was the Spanish flu that took place in 1918, 1919, you had literally millions of deaths. And unfortunately this is one of these situations where if you had a flu that mutated that was brand new, had human to human transmission, you could see a million deaths. You could see 10 million people hospitalized. We don't have the infrastructure or the capacity to deal with that.
Said by
Barack Obama
Democratic · Illinois

Editor's note · Context

Senator Obama discusses the lack of preparedness for a potential avian flu pandemic.

Share

More from Barack Obama

Feb 17, 2026

helped lead some of the most significant movements for change in human history

abcnews.com
Jun 19, 2026

America is currently experiencing anger and vision but we are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect."

bbc.com
Jun 25, 2026

never talks that way when they are in the same room.

salon.com
Jun 25, 2026

It shows me somebody who’s not focused on the American people and the job they’re supposed to do.

salon.com

Other voices in this conversation