115 quotes about viruses follow in order of popularity. Be sure to bookmark and share your favorites!

I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.

Stephen Hawking

We know that viruses can come through; sometimes liquids can penetrate the fabric in such minute amounts that we can't detect it visually. If they pass the synthetic blood test, we'll take it a step further and look for whether or not we'll have viral penetration.

Marian Mccord

There are many different types of viruses.

Gordon Mills

Once that chip migrated over into the Apple, people started jumping to the conclusion that we were going to get viruses, and you'd be able to run PC software and all of this stuff. These machines aren't going to do that. It's still the Mac operating system. What's more important to us is that Apple has gone to this chip for one reason: It's a dual core processor.

Rick Chaney

The problem is that, just like real viruses, we can't stamp out computer strains. Viruses never go away, and what we don't need is 1 million virus signatures in virus scanners.

Paul Robertson

There are almost no viruses for Linux. Certainly I've never seen one.

Tom Welch

That really brought these bacterial viruses to the fore, and they've continued to be important for half a century.

Jonathan King

We see people talking about the digital Pearl Harbor from the worms and Trojans and viruses. But in all probability, there's more likelihood of what we call the 'backhoe attack' that would have more impact on a region then a Code Red, or anything we've seen so far.

Howard Schmidt

We documented a clear difference between bird viruses and human viruses.

Clayton Naeve

If you stick to one partner, you can still have fun. It's having two or more partners over two weeks that's dangerous. You pass on bacteria and viruses that predispose to the disease, and with multiple partners the exposure is exponential.

Robert Booy

We fully expect this exploit to be utilized in the next year [by other viruses].

Vincent Gullotto

Cisco's and Nortel's systems use Windows, which has so many umbrellas on top to make it look simple. But it's complicated underneath, and it's vulnerable to viruses. Unix is a more perfected and hardened OS than Windows.

Bob Inpyn

There is a strong social bias against such findings because many people want to believe obesity is due to an individual's lack of control on some personal, mental level, but we now think viruses may be a factor.

Leah Whigham

While the US accounted for over half of all spam sent two years ago, it is now less than a quarter. This shows that more Americans are protecting their home computers from hackers. The reality is simply that more viruses, worms and Trojan horses are being designed to take over innocent users' computers to steal information or send out spam.

Brett Myroff

I think we as physicians are going to see assembly of a large number of antimicrobial peptides targeted against specific organisms, including viruses.

Michael Zasloff

A large proportion of the global population is in this region, and beyond that there is a diversity of animals that are thought to be important in the generation of these pandemic viruses.

Malik Peiris

The new approach is a more rapid approach because polio is considered a public health emergency of international importance. In an interconnected world, these viruses travel easily and don't respect international borders.

C. David Heymann

We do have standard protection on every desktop. But shoot, we're seeing viruses all the time that our software doesn't catch.

George Taylor

This combination of talent and technology will provide powerful and unique innovation to better understand and pro-actively anticipate the behavior of these complex viruses.

Pete Martinez

I think it's honestly a mixed bag. When you install Windows on a Mac, it is going to be susceptible to the same viruses that plague any other Windows system.

Michael Dawson

Goner is one of the most incredibly fast-moving and potentially dangerous e-mail viruses we've seen, ... We've seen most cases occur in France, the UK and the United States, in that order.

Mark Sunner

The hype around mobile-device viruses has been around for several years, but 2006 brings together a couple of necessary prerequisites for the problem to become real.

Neil Macdonald

The previous vaccine we developed was a strain obtained in Vietnam from 2004. The vaccine against the Vietnam virus would not be the most appropriate to protect against the Indonesia-like viruses.

Ruben Donis

Research tells us that most Americans don't understand that antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. People go to their doctor and request antibiotics for themselves or a sick child, when it is not the appropriate course of treatment.

Betsy Bauman

It's not the viruses that you attack, it's the infection method. The problem is that you have 10,000 programmers in Redmond designing for functionality and not security.

Roger Thompson

The major reason we are seeing antibiotic resistance is overuse of antibiotics in the population for illnesses that don't require antibiotics -- typically colds, sore throats, quote bronchitis unquote -- illnesses that would resolve by themselves because they are caused by viruses.

Bob Harrison

These viruses tend to be extremely focused and Pinellas County has the right blend.

Jonathan Day

The more these viruses interact with the human population, the more likely it is that it could adopt this type of mutation.

James Stevens

Many users will now delete an e-mail attachment that seems suspicious rather than open it up, so it has become more difficult for viruses to spread quickly.

Peter Firstbrook

What we saw 20 years ago was really technical enthusiasts, and people creating proof of concept viruses. For the first seven or eight years that was really who made these things.

Sal Viveros

Software standardization is a fertile breeding ground for viruses. Writing a virus for one e-mail client can affect every company using that client.

Lev Grossman

And what this paper in the Lancet really attests to is the need for us to have really good surveillance for the emergence of drug resistant influenza, and the emergence of novel strains or new strains of influenza, so that we can move quickly to prevent the spread of these influenza viruses when they occur.

Tom Skinner

This suggests that there are common themes responsible for the virulence of influenza viruses, ... In the case of these genes, we have a new target for the development of new antiviral drugs aimed at decreasing the virulence of highly pathogenic influenza viruses.

Adolfo Garcia

Research tells us that most Americans don?t understand that antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. People go to their doctor and request antibiotics for themselves or a sick child, when it is not the appropriate course of treatment.

Dr. Joann Schaefer

Windows get more viruses than Macs and UNIX systems, yes, but Macs are not immune. That's just a fundamental design issue in the operating systems.

Robin Anderson

E-mail has faced its challengers -- viruses, spam, regulations -- and emerged with its reputation bruised, but intact. Except among teens and young adults and inside certain fast-paced work environments, e-mail is staying ahead of instant messaging in terms of usage.

Mark Levitt

As long as H5N1 remains a bird virus, the threat to human health is not grave. But influenza viruses change constantly, and the danger is that, in the future, it could evolve into a virus that is easily transmissible among humans.

Carissa Etienne

The reason you cough is that your body is trying to mobilize mucus and break the secretions up -- your virus load. Fever, too, is part of the body's way of trying to kill viruses. They don't tolerate a high temperature.

Dr. Lyndon Mansfield

The risk of cerebral palsy was nearly doubled with exposure to certain herpes viruses, including the chicken-pox virus. In addition, the presence of cytomegalovirus was associated with preterm delivery in babies without cerebral palsy.

Catherine Gibson

Viruses have a way of defeating our plans and that's something everyone is going to have to be aware of.

Mike Cooke

No local outbreaks reported and very few reports of infections. Most companies are seeing the virus at the gateway but not in large numbers ? typically a few hundred viruses are blocked.

Allan Bell

We forecast that bird flu mutation is possible in the countries where the number of different viruses is high. This group includes the United States.

Sergei Dankvert

There are many other viruses it could be. The Ontario Public Health lab is working very hard on identifying which one of those viruses it might be.

Allison Mcgeer

It's very important to do this kind surveillance so that we know what's going on. And we're hopeful, since there are some clear differences, that these viruses will be made available to other investigators to do further analysis.

Michael Perdue

We've had no problems so far. We've also since discovered another bonus with using Linux; we receive far less spam and have less problems with computer viruses.

Greg Tourell

This is a novel concept as far as a cause for obesity. If these viruses are contributing to obesity, as we get to the point of developing a vaccine, there may be a way to help combat the obesity epidemic.

Leah Whigham

The doctor came in to sort out a few viruses. When you are under pressure you sometimes forget to take care of the little things. He made sure we were technically proficient.

Keven Mealamu

We were alarmed to find such a dramatic increase in drug resistance in circulating human influenza viruses in recent years.

Rick Bright

There are no viruses that spread without handset users actively accepting the installation. If a virus like this turns up soon, the market for mobile security solutions would change radically.

Risto Siilasmaa

The risk from viruses is an unanswered question -- and it won't be answered until you have had organs transplanted into humans over many years.

Adrian Smith

There was no market because there were no Mac viruses.

Mikko Hypponen

Lethal viruses tend to flare up and disappear. The fact that the outbreak is over does not mean we can pretend it's not a problem, or that it's not coming back. But by identifying the link between SARS and the human population, we can take steps to break that link.

Mary Pearl

These viruses are using Bluetooth connections to promulgate and spread to other cell phone users.

Ron Texiera

It's tricky to say when something like this could jump from proof of concept to being out in the wild because a lot depends on what the author's motives are and whether he wants to send it far and wide or if he just wants to show how good he is. The spread of viruses also depends on what people do with their phones. If they are only making calls, it's unlikely they will get infected.

David Emm

Many people thought the Mac was invulnerable. That's never been true, but the low number of viruses and attack attempts has made it feel true.

Craig Schmugar

[Others are sympathetic to the Microsoft plight.] The problem is that it is nearly impossible to offer security without blocking legitimate files, ... Microsoft's effort is a good first step. At least it should reduce the speed at which viruses can spread.

Carey Nachenberg

We know from previous work we've done in Wisconsin, for example La Crosse and Madison, that human viruses can be found in the municipal drinking water supply. We have some of the safest drinking water in the world, but we need to remain ever vigilant.

Mark Borchardt

Pet owners need to watch for clinical signs of respiratory problems and see their veterinarians if they spot any of the usual signs of a virus, such as runny eyes and nose or cough. Common viruses other than the flu can cause these signs in dogs, cats and birds. Many can be managed successfully in adult pets with proper supportive care.

Lorraine Corriveau

Network neutrality is a nearly indefinable concept. For instance, does network neutrality mean that network operators can't block spam? Should network operators be allowed to stop viruses from spreading? Should large users of peer-to-peer software be allowed unlimited bandwidth so service for other users is slower?

Brian Dietz

He wasn't on our anti-virus radar until Thursday. That suggests to us he probably didn't write viruses until now.

Peter Tibbett

Influenza viruses spread very rapidly ... this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Peter Doherty

Small and medium-sized businesses are contending with a 'data avalanche', vulnerable to computer viruses or crashes.

Ron Riffe

We know from the testing that's been done so far that this is not influenza, we know this is not SARS, we know this is not avian influenza. There are many other viruses it could be ... and the Ontario Public Health lab is working very hard on identifying which one of those viruses it might be.

Allison Mcgeer

We unconsciously touch our mouths, noses, and eyes many, many times each day. These mucous membranes are welcome mats for cold and flu viruses, which are readily transferred from unclean hands.

Judy Daly

Worms and viruses are increasingly being written to steal confidential data from innocent people's computers, to hijack resources, or launch spam or denial-of-service attacks.

Graham Cluley

This is something that we've been talking about for some time now. We're seeing the number of viruses speeding up now as it gets closer to Y2K.

Narender Mangalam

The risk of cerebral palsy is nearly doubled with exposure to the herpes B viruses.

Catherine Gibson

We know from testing that it's not influenza, we know that this is not SARS, we know this is not avian influenza. There are many other viruses it could be, and ... the Ontario Public Health Lab is working on identifying which one.

Alison Mcgeer

The FDA should have required far larger studies. You are combining five live viruses into one vaccine, which has never been done before.

Barbara Loe Fisher

French and Palestinian doctors who treated the martyred brother found that medicine could not find the disease which infected Arafat, neither viruses, nor germs, nor AIDS, nor bacteria.

Ahmed Qureia

It's given us a lot of great opportunities to form a long-term relationship with clients, but it's not always a good thing. I know there are a lot of people out there selling with scare tactics, the ones who don't want to see viruses go away. I disagree with that sales philosophy, but I see a lot of it.

Tom Barnes

Bacteria and viruses are two very distinct, separate entities.

Dr. Donald Hardman

In the case of these genes, we have a new target for the development of new antiviral drugs aimed at decreasing the virulence of highly pathogenic influenza viruses.

Adolfo Garcia

The Internet changed how the viruses were distributed, but the driver for why it is more financial now is that [the computer] is so integrated in our daily lives. Fraud has been out their for years. Now, instead of bad checks, criminals acquire credit-card numbers online.

Rob Ayoub

We scan around a billion emails a week and usually see about two targeted viruses. Now we're seeing a sharp rise which is very concerning.

Mark Sunner

It was very surprising - I thought it would take a combination of mutations. But a single mutation makes it much easier, and since these viruses are very mutable, this is something that must be happening all the time.

Scott Weaver

We know the virus is changing. We're watching little mutations occur all the time -- that's what flu viruses do.

Dr. Julie Gerberding

None whatsoever. The biological specimens are sealed with multiple seals inside containers. And the viruses that are being flown present absolutely no hazard to the crew.

William Kinard

As opposed to Windows, there are over 70,000 known viruses.

Rick Levitt

[Wireless viruses] are not so prevalent now because there are so many types of devices.

Leo Chan

Our findings provide a rational explanation for why H 5 N 1 viruses rarely infect and spread from human to human, although they can replicate efficiently in the lungs.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka

We do have it on our watch list of viruses that may become an issue. As always, we recommend that customers get their antivirus software updated.

Sal Viveros

The 92 per cent similarity may mean nothing and does not prove the bat was the original host. Even if two viruses are more than 99 per cent similar to each other, we still cannot say that they have a host relationship.

Liu Qi

Recently, some strains of bird flu viruses have infected people in Asia. There is concern these new strains could cause a pandemic, but they are not infecting people in the United States at this time. Rather than wait for that possibility to occur, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is testing avian influenza vaccines.

Robert Belshe

The complete sequence of the 1918 virus, demonstrating its avian origin, and focusing on those mutations that differentiate avian from human strains will be immensely helpful as we try to understand the factors that govern the epidemic behavior of the current crop of avian H5 viruses.

John Treanor

Spam is looking much more like viruses.

Pat Peterson

By creating a multi-layered defense that proactively repels spam and viruses at their source, organizations can now get ahead of troublemakers who are always looking for new ways of penetrating IT systems through e-mail.

Tom Mcdonald

Small business owners know that their most critical asset is their information, yet it is stored on computers that can crash and are susceptible to viruses, power outages and theft. Backup systems won't protect data if a virus causes a network/computer crash before the data is backed up at the end of the day. This is why continuous protection is important.

Anna Yen

The findings may point the way to new medical interventions, such as drugs or vaccines, for infections caused by enveloped RNA viruses.

Anthony S. Fauci

Despite the major threat to human health posed by these viruses, there was very little information available on the entire genomes of bird flu viruses. Now we're in a much better position to understand what makes these viruses tick. And that could help us learn how to control the avian influenza viruses that threaten humans.

Clayton Naeve

There are literally hundreds of viruses that can cause these types of outbreaks. It is still likely that we will not identify exactly which virus caused this outbreak.

Allison Mcgeer

Other than the staff time that has gone into this, there are no other expenses, which is fortunate. Certainly, viruses can do damage to hardware.

Mary Kelly

The viruses don't float around as little spaceships. The only way you're going to catch a cold is for mucus from someone else's nose to get into your nose.

Ron Eccles

Diseases are caused by viruses and bacteria. If the body doesn't happen to have those viruses or bacteria, then the risk is less.

Glenn Morris

SARS gave everyone … new respect for respiratory viruses.

Allison Mcgeer

Infectious diseases are impossible to cover up. You may be able to cover up figures but you cannot cover up the viruses. That's why I don't just look at the figures.

Gao Qiang

The problem is that people don't see these diseases and think they no longer exist. These viruses and diseases are still circulating around the world and are just a plane ride away, and they will return if we don't keep our vaccination rates up.

Curtis Allen

Vendors are concerned with the alarming rate smart phone viruses are starting to come out now.

Anthony James

Pc-cillin protects against viruses as well as protects against spyware and adware. It also has spam filtering and gives you a firewall to protect you from people trying to get into your computer. Norton 2005 does the same thing.

Gordon Mills

It's a hard trade-off. You can do without this incredibly powerful technology that makes your system so much more automatic, or you can shut off that automatic capability and not have that tight integration, but have protection against viruses.

Anne Thomas

There is competition among the people who write viruses to create special mischief around New Year's Eve. We think it's a good idea for companies to shut down their e-mail systems for about a 24-hour period. But they also need to have contingency plans for a period afterward so they can fix their systems in the case of time bombs sent earlier.

David Ferris

If you want to learn how to take these viruses apart and put them back together ... and develop a vaccine against them, it really requires this kind of spacesuit laboratory.

Tom Curtis

A lot of cases that people think are from flu aren't really the flu at all, but other respiratory viruses like RSV. At least with the flu, we have something to control it — a vaccine.

Ann Falsey

Environmental bacteria and viruses are so prolific they're on everything.

Douglas Garrett

Many think that the Macintosh operating system is impervious to viruses or these kind of security threats. It is not that they are impervious; they are targeted less.

Craig Schmugar

This is the way virus writers can upgrade the infected machines. It's like [Microsoft's] Windows update for viruses.

Mikko Hypponen

[DNSSEC] sounds like a good idea, but it's hard for me to assess the likelihood of this threat, ... In the pantheon of threats, viruses and more direct packet attacks rate a higher frequency. Those are the ones we worry about more.

Michael Saltzman

Application of the new system may be especially advantageous in situations of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka

You can have the same guy voting 10 times if you don't have the infrastructure to determine that the guy on the other side is who he is claiming to be. It's a challenge just getting people to get their viruses updated. Getting them to get their PKI authentication in place is something else entirely.

Narender Mangalam

I worry more about the H5N1 viruses that I work with.

Terrence Tumpey

The number of proof-of-concept viruses is increasing but that's not to say there has been an increase in the risk of infestation or there is any need for panic or worry.

David Wood

CD8 T cells that have fought viral infections retain a 'memory' of the viruses they've encountered, so they can rapidly respond to new infections from those viruses.

Gordon Freeman

Some will just create [deceptive viruses known as] Trojans, others will just help you transfer money.

Art Wong

Our product is more used to filter Windows viruses than actual Linux viruses.

Ron O'brien

So there's another virus or viruses that this thing has come from. But this is the closest thing they've got on the trail of dots.

Earl Brown