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 AviationPreparedness 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 f