Ab Osterhaus has not fallen into a black hole now that there is no talk show that calls him anymore. During the corona pandemic, he was on television several times a week, but now nobody wants him.
The talk show Today Inside had Ab Osterhaus play TV virologist one more time yesterday. “It’s good to see you again. There was a time when you couldn’t get rid of the picture tube. Have you fallen into a black hole?” said presenter Wilfred Genee.
bird flu
Ab argues that this is not the case. “No, on the contrary. I went back to work nicely. That was amazing. There are all kinds of new problems, so it doesn’t stop there.”
Wilfred: “Yes, that’s what you’re here for. I brought up about the bird flu last week and then I was laughed at a bit here, but I think now you’re going to tell me it’s very serious, right?”
Ab: “It’s absolutely serious.”
Very scared
If the bird flu spreads to people, Ab will be on TV every day again. “That’s kind of analogous to what we’re afraid of, that that’s going to happen one day. We have actually been warning for decades about the possibility that such an avian virus could transfer to humans and that it could become transmissible to humans.”
But we are done with corona now, right? “It is very well possible that new variants will be introduced. You see that with the flu. Every four or five years you also have a variant that also causes many more problems.”