Transcripts For CSPAN Fmr. 20240703

Center, this is about an hour. Once again, good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for coming this morning. I think it might be appropriate for us just to pause for a moment. I lost a good friend last night. Dianne feinstein was a friend of more than 30 years. Just an incredibly effective and extraordinary member of the senate and leader and we mourn her loss in more ways than i can articulate this morning. But i thought maybe just a moment of silence in memory of dianne and all of her contributions to our country might be appropriate. For the past three years ive been privileged to serve as the chair of the coalition to stop flu. Were a multisector Advocacy Coalition dedicated to ending deaths from seasonal and pandemic influenza, an ambitious goal, but one we actually believe is achievable. Now maybe more than ever. Tom our Coalition Members are a unified voice for the influenza ecosystem that include organizations dedicated to Public Health, to patient advocacy, academic, scientific and research, in addition to health care professionals. The coalition also includes biotech companies, health care distributors, vaccine, antiviral and diagnostic manufacturers. As im sure many in this room remember, this time last year we had an unprecedented something we call a tripledemic, where r. S. V. , flu and covid were simultaneously circulating. The impact on American Families was staggering. The surge hit Young Children especially hard. Childrens hospitals across the country struggled to keep up with the growing caseloads of kids waiting days for a hospital bed and makeshift Holding Areas like hallways and play rooms. We could have, should have done better. Well, this year c. D. C. s new center for forecasting and analytics is expecting perhaps a more typical respiratory disease season. However, this by no means is a good thing. Many of you have heard the phrase, i know, as we have, just the flu. But what we forget is that as a nation, flu kills up to 50,000 americans every year. Including many children. What makes this all the more tragic is that many, if not most, of these deaths are preventable. If that isnt enough, flu results in up to 700,000 hospitalizations. And many millions of illnesses each year, costing over 10 million annually, in largely preventable medical costs. This is to say nothing of the economic burden from absent students, absent employees. So this makes influenza perhaps our countrys most predictable but preventable Public Health crisis. Yet for many years our country has seemingly viewed this annual tragedy as inevitable. Now i share the sentiment of all of you that more can and must be done. Unfortunately this lack of National Urgency also extends to another great threat to our country, pandemic influenza. Four global influenza pandemics have been recorded in the past 100 years, as most of us recall. Including one in 1918 which infected nearly 1 3 of the world and killed at least 50 Million People. Imagine how much more deadly an influenza pandemic could be in todays globalized world. Unfortunately we know that pandemics dont wait in line. And were currently in the midst of the Worlds Largest avian flu outbreak which has resulted in deadly outbreaks in mammals, in addition to the deaths of tens of millions of birds. While the current risk to humans is low, that may not always be the case. We know that its a matter of when, not if, the next influenza pandemic emerges. And for all these reasons, were delighted to have the opportunity to host a briefing here today on the 20232024 influenza season and the federal governments role in influenza preparedness and response. The coalition is releasing today an afteraction report, highlighting Lessons Learned for the next season. For those of you in the room, i encourage you to pick up a copy if you havent already. As our speakers will highlight, a number of federal agencies play outside roles in the fight against flu, including c. D. C. And the n. I. H. So were looking forward today to learning more about how the federal government and its partners throughout the flu ecosystem are working to respond to this flu season and prepare for another pandemic. With that, i want to turn it over to my friend, congressman rick larsen of washington state. Rick has been an incredible partner and champion on influenza and is the sponsor now of the protecting america from seasonal and pandemic influenza act, or what we call the influenza act. This groundbreaking legislation would make a meaningful and badly needed improvement to our federal flu preparedness and response. The coalition is delighted that the bill has been introduced and were incredibly grateful for the congressmans leadership and his presence here today. With that, let me introduce congressman larsen. [applause] rick tpwhrfrpblg thanks, tom rick thanks, to eufplt appreciate the introduction and tom. I appreciate the introduction and i want to thank you and the coalition to stop the flu and folks from the center for Disease Control and others for joining me again this year. I want to thank these panelists as well for joining us. I joined you last december, seasonal flu was raging in washington state. Where im from. And certainly across the country. And sadly, during the 20222023 flu season, it was the deadliest flu season in five years in washington state. Claiming the lives of 262 adults and children. The c. D. C. Estimates, as tom mentioned, as many as 50,000 americans died last year from the flu. Now, that is more than the number of americans who died in Motor Vehicle accidents. Additionally, its as many as 640,000 americans were hospitalized for flu as well. Now, i never lose an opportunity to talk about how im on the transportation committee, because i do a lot of work on the transportation committee. But its especially relevant because as the lead democrat on the transportation committee, you know, i supported the implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law, which makes hisser to sreufpblgts to improve vehicle and Highway Safety in response to rising traffic fatalities. Theres an analogy here. Investing in the infrastructure to prevent fatalities is important work to do. And similarly, during, as we enter another flu season, we need to make a strong investment in the infrastructure to decrease the likelihood of seasonal and pandemic flu as well. And therefore decrease and eventually eliminate these clearly, highly preventable deaths. Just like we do on the roads, we can do it with the flu. And we need to make that same kind of commitment. The covid19 pandemic demonstrated that the u. S. Is not adequately prepared for outbreaks of respiratory and other Infectious Diseases. Congress made some progress last year when we were able to get a National Aviation Preparedness Plan to tackle future Public Health emergencies in the event of pandemics. However, we have to do more. And today i will introduce the protecting america from seasonal and pandemic influenza act to bolster this comprehensive federal response to seasonal and pandemic flu. Specifically, the bill increases access to vaccines and therapeutics, strengthens and diversifies vaccine development, manufacturing and supply chains, promotes research and development of new technologies to detect, prevent and respond to the flu, as well, Congress Needs to continue to fully fund existing initiatives that save lives, preparedness and innovative research, promote Public Health and prevent the economic harm of the same magnitude that we saw during covid. If congress does not act, the next pandemic could be a flu pandemic. Dont take my word for it. We have experts here today. Experts who will explain, demonstrate how important it is that we respond, and that we prepare and that we provide prevention to the millions of folks here in the united states. And as well, listen to the incredible women and men who are working every day to keep people healthy and safe. Talk to your Health Care Providers, get your flu shot. I got mine yesterday. Right in time for this. Had it scheduled for later in the month. I thought, i better show up to this assembly with a flu shot. So i encourage folks to ask your Health Care Provider about that. So thank you all for being with us here today for what youve done, for what youll continue to do to protect people from the flu. And other Infectious Diseases. The hard work that you do, your personal stories and advocacy make all the difference. I thank you again for inviting me to join you today with that, as you can imagine, i wont be sticking around. Theres a few other things going on on capitol hill and ill turn it back over to senator daschle. Thanks. [applause] tom thank you, rick, for your leadership, for your presentation, and we wish you well as you confront the many challenges congress is facing today in particular. Our next speaker is dr. Vivian dugan who currently serves as the director of the Influenza Division in c. D. C. S National Center for immunization andres preutory disease and respiratory disease. In this role she provides programmatic leadership and overall scientific and administrative management of the Influenza Divisions activities and functions. Dr. Tkaougen earned a bashlor of science degree in biology from union college, a masters of science in veterinary medicine and a ph. D. In Infectious Diseases from the veterinary medicine. Shes been an outstanding leader and we have so enjoyed the opportunity to work with her. We have many, many supporters in this whole effort and we have a few champions. Rick larsen and dr. Dugan are two of our finest champions. Please welcome with me, dr. Dugan. [applause] vivian thank you so much, senator daschle. And of course for representative larsen, for those very kind and important remarks. I just want to also tha pg the coalition as thank the coalition as well and also for all of our members here today for planning this briefing at a really and important time during respiratory virus season which is starting to happen. Not only myself, but all of us at c. D. C. , especially in our center and our division, the Influenza Division at c. D. C. , are very grateful for the coalitions really strong commitment for raising this awareness of the importance of influenza viruses and also preventing, detecting and of course treating influenza, all of our Panel Members here today have really made that strong commitment to really work hard, to combat the health, social and Economic Impacts that influenza has on not only the u. S. Public, but in the global space. Im going to start with a really brief overview of last season, the 20222023 influenza season. It was a very good example of how unpredictable flu can be. It also demonstrated why c. D. C. Works so tirelessly to really keep up to date with all of our Surveillance Systems and infrastructure so that we can track whats happening with influenza and where its happening in a timely manner. Typically flu peaks in february in the u. S. , but what we saw last year was an early season. So activity started in september, really started kind of ramping up in october, and then peaked in december, which is much earlier than what weve seen in the past. And so this was at least three weeks before the earliest recorded peak in 25 years. Again, very unpredictable. Our metrics that we use at c. D. C. To really assess the severity of the influenza season indicated it was a moderately severe flu season. And we estimate, these are new numbers we have out line the, that last flu season, the 20222023 season, that at least 31 Million People were sick with flu. That 360,000 people were hospitalized with flu. And approximately 21,000 people died from influenza or flurelated complications. And so for some populations, weve seen indications that it was actually more than a moderately severe season. Children and of course seniors, as representative larsen mentioned, in the state of washington, adults that were 65 years or old were actually hospitalized at the high rate ofs last season highest rates last season and that was followed by children younger than 5 years old. Again, of course, one of the other numbers that we track is a very unfortunate and sad number that we had 176 pediatric deaths in last season alone. And this number is above the seasonal average. Its the third highest number for pediatric deaths during a seasonal flu epidemic since reporting started in early 2004. These numbers really serve as sad and unfortunate reminders, again, of the immense health, social and Economic Impacts of flu and the importance of vaccines. So a little bit about vaccine effectiveness for last year. Our data on vaccine effectiveness last season, from c. D. C. , shows that the vaccine actually provided substantial protection against flu illness and against severe flurelated complications. So in a report that we published just yesterday, we estimated flu vaccination prevented more than 66,000 flu hospitalizations last season in the u. S. So getting a flu vaccine was really good at reducing that risk of flurelated optizations. So in children hospitalizations. So in children it reduced the risk of children being hospitalized nearly 75 and then for adults, about 50 . So really, getting that vaccine reduces that risk that you will go into the hospital. Were working strongly to modernize influenza vaccines, especially for h3n2 virus, one of several that circulated here. And those can actually cause more severe complications in both adults and children. But again, with these numbers and with these estimates that were looking at in retrospect, i chose that flu it shows that flu vaccines are saving lives so theyre a very important tool that we have that i think we of course need to do more with. And that said, the flu Vaccination Coverage in the u. S. Was lower than what we would like. Of course we can always do better with flu Vaccination Coverage. Just under 50 of all adults in the u. S. Got a flu vaccine last year. So were really working hard to address those concerning drops in vaccination that have happened since the covid19 pandemic. We have seen pregnant people have large decreases and getting vaccines and racial and ethnic disparities that have persisted. Im going to share a little bit about that in a moment. As senator daschle mentioned the covid19 and influenza. Are we going to see it again . We dont know whats going to happen. It is unpredictable and other viruses and we expect that we are going to see influenza activity and circulation and covid19. And so what may happen this year, we look to what happened in the Southern Hemisphere. And looking at that activity, we look for clues what might happen here in the u. S. Looking that is circulating in the Southern Hemisphere, hinfluenza virus. Out of the 15 countries in the you Southern Hemisphere, one country had all three. And vaccine if he cantiveness and five south american countries that had the flu season and people who got a flu vaccine were half as likely to be hospitalized as opposed to those who didnt get a vaccine. These vaccines do work and prevent hospitalizations. The Southern Hemisphere is not a perfect predictor of what may happen here but we expect that the flu is going to show up here in the next coming months and going to spread in the current season and important to think about getting vaccinated. It is important to remember that september and october now is really the best time to get vaccinated. Now for influenza and great time if you havent gotten a flu vanes and we recommend from c. D. C. , everyone six months and older and get that vaccine we forged a wild smile and we have some flyers circulating. And have an annual no time for flu vaccine and in cooperation with the ad council and american medical association. It has cute animals and wild animals, getting a flu vaccine can decrease that illness or hospitalization. And so we develop these educational tools through partnerships and through focus groups and engagement to get messages that resonate and hopefully share that in social media and other feeds to get that message out. There are post cards that are available and put the flyers back up at the end today. And before i close, i do want to shift to influenza vier viruses with pandemic potential. There is a counterpart on the pandemic side. While most of the discussion today is about seasonal influenza and seasonal flu viruses, our readiness never changes. We are in a strong posture for any pandemic viruses that move from animal populations into humans. I am grateful for those on the panel here today for keeping the influenza and pandemic unless we forget what is happening in the background. Influenza has been for the past couple of years impacting poultry. And so this is where these and and continue to enhance our domestic preparedness whatever may happen that many may become a threat to people. Through our hospitalization and surveillance that we work for seasonal and global work that we build from partnerships and have that readiness that serves for our pandemic readiness as well. And we monitor all the viruses that happen and push hard on sequencing which is a tool to know what is happening with influenza viruses and track and get near realtime information to make vaccines and available. We are partnering with groups of Public Health as well as not just at c. D. C. So we have that Capacity Building to know whats going on and what is happening in the flu ecosystem. In closing, that unpredictable nature of flu and looming threat of a severe flu season keeps us on our toes and risk of pandemic influenza fortifies c. D. C. Fighting flu. So we are extremely grateful for the partnership in these efforts shown here today and i want to remind everyone now is the great time to get vaccinated and protect yourself from the flu and those around you. I thank you very much. [applause] daschle daschle we have a founding board member of families fighting flu. His family story has driven much of this work. And we have dr. Gregory branch, the Health Officer and director of the Baltimore County department of health and dr. L. J. Tan policy officer and cochair of the National Adult influenza immunization summit. I welcome and they have traveled some distance even as early as this morning to be part of this and delighted they could be with us today and given their background and commitment, we are extremely grateful. One of the things we always hear and it is just the flu. And in so expressing that its just the flu, a lot of us minimize its impact. How do you respond when you hear that expression . Primarily with regret. My wife and i thats how we view too, to be honest. It was just the flu and wasnt something to worry about. When our daughter was diagnosed with flu, we were more worried about school and the inconvenient time. But what we learned from the mild illness, diagnosis, our daughter died in five days, healthy child. Five days later, she died. We found her nonresponsive and gave her c. P. R. And she didnt make it. Since that time, weve done as much as we can to help educate other parents that its not just the flu, that flu is something that can be very deadly and dangerous and is deserving of a little bit of time to get vaccinated and plea vent prevent. Senator daschle we are deeply saddened by stories like that and are more grateful that families like yours and you in particular are willing to share these tragic stories so that we can recognize just how much more serious a threat this is. Its not just the flu as you so well articulated. Im going to be turning to you after a little while for questions if you have any, be thinking of some questions. Dr. Tan, can you speak to the role the federal government plays in preparedness and with our partners to amplify its reach . I thank the coalition for inviting me. Just a quick comment. I am cochair of the adult and national immeunsization center that is public and private partners that Work Together not only to address influenza. And one of the things that the summit has been grateful and appreciative is the collaboration that we have seen from the centers of Disease Control and department ofhealth and Human Services working with private sect or partners and nonprofit to get the word out its just the flu but also provide the Critical Data in order to make positive messaging to speak with a fun filed voice about what the science shows us about the impact of influenza. One of the things we have learned with the public and private partnerships, c. D. C. , flu isnt just the flu but because of the complications from flu and frailty and impact of flu on frailty, we have implications for many partners that we dont think of, people who represent longterm care, advocates Healthy Aging population. The number of times i have spoken to someone, im 70 years old and im running a marathon tomorrow, yeah, but the flu will still take you out. It is a wonderful collaboration that we have done. And the other thing i want to reemphasize after saying this, seasonal readiness and readiness is pandemic preparedness. The federal government provides the infrastructure that will allow its private partner sectors to respond when the next flu pandemic hits us and it is imperative to maintain that readiness every year. If we can vaccinate per the c. D. C. Recommendations, everybody six months of age and older, dont you think we will be deliver pandemic vaccines to that same population when we need to in the collaboration is important and i want to thank c. D. C. And h. H. S. For that. Senator daschle i wasnt planning to do this but let me follow up with a question and i might ask each of our panelists if they have a thought on this, i am concerned about Vaccine Hesitancy and its ability to undermine our capacity to deal with seasonal and pandemic flu. If there is one thing we can do to address Vaccine Hesitancy, what would it be . Thats something that exploded in coming out of the pandemic. One of the important things to recognize the majority of Americans Still understand that the social norm is to get vaccinated. Thats our coverage rates in children and adults continue to increase and continue to stay very high. But there is a very vocal and active antivaccination movement that we need to be aware of. The most important thing in addressing that is to go back to the trusted person, which is your Health Care Provider. One of the things we have to do is prepare Health Care Providers for that increase in that movement and give them the information and knowledge they need to be able to talk with their patients and science and evidence and addressing the direct concern of those patients that they will accept it. When they give that strong recommendation, working with the Health Care Providers and this panel has many more ideas. Senator daschle dr. Branch. One of the things that happens is that we are doomed because of our success. We have done some wonderful things with vaccines. We have eradicated many diseases and because of that as generations go on, i truly believe they forget. They say well, i dont need that. So we arent having many people die from smallpox, we have different diseases that we have been able to push aside. And unfortunately the education is extraordinary important to remind everyone how successful we have been with vaccines and not be doing something they could forget. Thats what actually happens. We have the issues on social media, the antivacs that are there but also because we have been so successful with vaccinations, we seem to forget. Senator daschle joe. Im going to give a little bit of a different answer here. Im kind of with you that im a little discouraged right now, not defeated, but a little bit discouraged and the reason for that is that when we lost our daughter who was not vaccinated, this is in 2004, so our work has been going on a long time. We have more than 80 families that work around the country and we could see some progress. More access to flu vaccine. Availability to different populations. Theres lot of wins since that time and so i agree because of the spillover from covid that we have to regain some ground. But were here and i guess we see ourselves as serving kind of a very particular niche in focusing on education and letting people know why is it worth to drop by if your work is doing it or make sure that your children get vaccinated, its because of what happened to our child and many other children in other families that are in our group. Senator daschle thank you, joe, for that. Dr. Dug didan. We did make some great head way we saw numbers when it came to Vaccine Coverage and we have lost some ground in Young Children as well as other pregnant people and other compromised individuals. The covid19 pandemic has helped c. D. C. And other partners modernize how we message and what we message. We try to keep up with social media and other ways to talk to trusted individuals not just Health Care Providers but your community leaders, the people you trust the most to get advice when it comes to protecting yourself and families and we are working closely with a lot of those who are influencers in the to get that message out to trusted partners. Good message is it has been quite awhile and very safe and there are concerns with safety. And that is what we are trying to address. When we know those concerns, we can address them. Listening to these concerns and taking them seriously and trying to address them and not just coming from a c. D. C. Perspective but those trusted Community Partners that those people would believe. Senator daschle a related question to you. You have an extraordinary responsibility in serving 850,000 people in Baltimore County. How do you work to ensure access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to some of baltimores most vulnerable residents . From a local Health Department perspective thats where the rubber meets the road and have to get vaccines into the arms of people. I always say preparation is exroorld important. Education and then vaccination. Preparation, we must prepare to be able to give a good amount of people the vaccination, how do we do that . In Baltimore County we have super saturdays and doing it since h1n1. We have clinics in seven districts at the same time. We are doing that to prepare for the possible pandemic but doing it every year always immunizing the community and getting them used to be immunizing in that way. And we have operation short bread. We work with the girl scouts of america and distribute their cookies to all the troops. Why would a Health Department distribute cookies . In the event that we have to distribute vaccines, we would do it the same way, a girl scout cookie becomes is a medical box and able to do it in a efficient way and we are preparing for that. In the years we have done operation shortbread and the vaccines in our districts when covid hit and we had to vaccinate. For Baltimore County we had multiple sites and the fair ground was able with the group to vaccinate 500 people per hour. Less than 15minute wait. We were prepared. Education. We have to education indicate folks. If they wouldnt takes it, thats a problem. Getting the work out and indicate educate folks, we are very good in Public Health. And everyone trusts but what happens is we forget, we forget about the polio in the past because we had wonderful vaccines. We have to remind the population of that. We have to vaccinate and we do that through our Health Centers, but its important we do it with an equity lens and look at different populations. So we look at the Homeless Population and trying to get vaccines to the Homeless Population, we look at homeless shelters. We look at our Detention Centers and try to ensure they have the vaccines there. We look at our homebound population and we actually go into the homes and vaccinate them and partner with faithbased organizations and our Health Centers and our pharmacist and partner with our primary care providers and do these things to make sure from a Grassroots Level that we can get the shots in all the different arms we need to, specifically our vulnerable populations and do it with an equity lens. It is important that we prepare, that we educate and then we can vaccinate. Senator daschle i think you have set the bar and we extraordinarily salute your efforts and the leadership you have shown. We only wish other cities can replicate that extraordinary and comprehensive approach. I want to open up to people to whatever and dont feel compelled to answer this question. We cant end our session without talking about it, nobody wants to talk about god forbid, another pandemic, but there is that threat, that four in the last 100 years, its not a question of if but when. It would be helpful for our audience to know and have your percent effective of how you look at that and whether we are prepared and ill open it up to anybody who wishes to answer the question. I can start. The way that c. D. C. Has really taken the approach to getting ready and preparing and being in that posture of readiness has been through is seasonal. That is our exercise. This is what we do every year when we have influenza season, we are still ready with detection, data sharing, getting into analyzing whats happening and putting that information out and making it available on a weekly basis. We have availability of flu vaccines. And that exercising that we do every year in the u. S. And situation National Awareness gets us ready for being ready for a pandemic. Maintaining that infrastructure and innovating where we can. The covid19 pandemic gave us opportunities and tools to innovate and enhance our Surveillance Systems to have better data faster, more Information Available and share that and make it available to our Public Health partners to get that message out. We are doing a good job of staying exercise and strong but that is making sure to be ready not if it happens but when it happens. One of the most important things that the doctor mentioned is data and other one is surveillance. Surveillance data in realtime and what the c. D. C. Is doing allows us to kind of react in realtime. But the surveillance gives us whats coming as well and allows us to see you have seen one flu season, you have seen one flu season. Having knowledge of what might be coming down the path is important. One of the things that came out of the covid, one of the great things that came out of covid, the country is better prepared because of the work we did with covid. The work we have done with Community Based organizations and bringing in that trusted messenger. That work has to be sustained and developed further because thats what we are going to rely on when that next pandemic hits and it would be a shame if we lost any of that. We need to keep sustaining that infrastructure data base organizations, private partnerships that have searched us well through covid. One of the great things adult registries in the states are finally there and need to get people registered into them. Now we are finally there. We need to exablize and sustain that great work that came out of the covid pandemic. I would remiss if i could not mention practical where the rubber meets the road issue we are having and that is going to be our staffing. Covid19 put us to air challenge and many of my experienced well trained folks retired. And theyre now moving away. And i dont have a lot of folks who are coming up now, really coming into Public Health to do that work. I think it is extraordinarily important as we are preparing to understand we need a work force who can actually put the vaccine into the arms at a local level, having that infrastructure to build. But weve learned our lessons. We have a lot more information. But we have to prepare and continue to build the infrastructure so that we are ready and prepared when it does happen. Senator daschle how many folks in this room for covid went to a drive through facility at least one time . I see a lot. What is interesting to me no one mentioned we have been doing drivethrough flu pilots for a decade or more and they were shared that someone would do 5,000, 8,000, someone would do 10,000. Some of what you saw in covid has been piloted with seasonal flu. Senator daschle before we are out of time, i want to give the audience an opportunity to ask a question or two. We have a microphone here. Anyone want to pose a question. I have many more there are a couple of questions here. What additional tools and resources needed from congress to better assess the flu or better address the flu at this point in time . I will take the first step. Great way to highlight the coalitions work here. But what representative harrisen talked about with the influenza act is maintaining the resources and the funding that sustained the infrastructure we created from covid. And some of the infrastructure that existed before covid that we use in covid. And want to make sure we sustain that and build upon that and thats what congressman larsen was talking about with these recommendations sustaining the work force and sustaining the access to vaccines, thats what we would love to see from congress, there is a private nonprofit organization, the work to continue to fund the great infrastructure that we came out of covid with and not lose any of that. In 2009, h1n1 there was developed infrastructure to get the vaccines out to people and despite many people saying lets not have that happen, it went away. When covid hit, we werent ready again. My job as an advocate to say lets not that happen again and continue to have the surveillance and so the next pandemic hits we are ready to go. The recommendations are in here but i highly support whats in there. Senator daschle great answer. Another question . I think there was one over here. We are fortunate to have vaccines this year to protect against all three of those diseases. How can we keep flu front and center introducing more novel vaccines in that crowded space . Its unprecedented time and the public space has more tools than ever. When i started graduate they said the r. S. Vaccine is coming and its finally here. Our first love is influenza and flu and we are here to focus on flu and to highlight all of the stories and impacts that it has had. Last year was a great example of how severe a season could be on where we didnt have a lot of flu activity. We are getting that message out. And we hope flu doesnt speak for itself so it is another severe season where it becomes front and center. As we are keeping that momentum with covid19 and the interest is up, flu is part of the repertoire. Speaking with pharmacists and interagencieses and private sector, the i think the other thing to remind all of us we have great vaccines out there. Great covid vaccines. And we have a really good flu vaccine. As pointed out, the effects of the flu can be measured in the terms of sections it prevents and the hospitalizations and measured in terms of the deaths that were prevented because someone got vaccinated and the other populations is the 5064yearolds who have chronic illnesses that are susceptible to injury. They dont know they have Heart Disease and if they got vaccinated, they would be protected as well. We need to make sure we continue to educate about the impact across the population. Influenza is a vaccine that we have the most information on. Its something that we have given a lot of doses on. One of the things i would say keep influenza, thats our pivot. Use influenza to say this is whats going to bring our patients in and at the point of bringing them in we can highlight all the other preventive vaccines we can give them for the respiratory season coming and also beyond that. We almost accept the fact that children have to take vaccines. This is the 21st century. Adults, we have to take vaccines and thats the reality. You mentioned three, but still have others. We have at the time news and whooping could you have and so many other vaccines and thats the reality of the situation. So this is what is protecting us from all these illnesses and at the point now we have to embrace it and embrace the fact that we are going to be taking vaccines all of our lives. Its just not for children. I like to give a tet news shot. The flu shot hurts a lot less. Senator daschle great way to end the conversation. Flu shots hurt less. I can attest to that myself. We are out of time. We could have certainly continued this conversation for at least an hour. I thank congressman larsen and our panelists for enlightening and informative session. And those watching online find out more about the coalition at our website flucoalition. Org. Encourage your member to cosponsor this legislation. It is so critical and more pipe support we can show more likely it is we are going to get the tracks to pass it. I look forward to working with you and ensuring that our pandemic and flu preparedness is ready to meet the theft. But the American People deserve no less. Thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org