He believes the outbreak's spread will almost certainly cause Japan in the next few days to go from a designation of an early stage of community transmission to widespread community transmission in its own pandemic preparedness plan. (sciencemag.org)
But Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, says he puts very little stock in such models, and he worries that the findings may lead other countries to become complacent about their own pandemic preparedness. (sciencemag.org)
So I think that the whole scientific underpinning of pandemic preparedness is both incredibly interesting and another area where everybody's got their «I'm a good guy or a good gal, I want to help» hat on, which is really something that I'm happy to see. (scientificamerican.com)