This article has studied from a biographical-narrative perspective how Albert Osterhaus, Roel Coutinho and Jaap Goudsmit positioned themselves over the years as policy and public experts in the field of infectious diseases. Their narratives covered five stages, from the late 1970s until April 2009, when the swine flu pandemic struck. Right from the start, they were all simultaneously conducting research, drafting public health or veterinary policy based on that research, and communicating to various publics and patient groups on the diseases. In some cases, communication was used strategically to induce policy change (Birkland 1997; Kingdon 1995) , but often enough communication was aimed at solely informing the public on the status quo of outbreaks.