Im also the professor of medicine and the department of Health Policy and Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University school of medicine. On behalf of im pleased to welcome you all here this morning. Please use the hash tag fight the flu. Please still join before 10 30 a. M. Today. The list is available on the nsaid website at www. Dot n. S. I d. Weve gathered partners in the communities to address the unique challenges of each flu season and if youve seen juan, youve seen one. The department of health and Human Services who is our keynote speaker. It is an honor to have the doctor with us to share the latest data on how we are doing as a nation. Nurse practitioner and Infectious Disease of childrens minnesota the senior direction of Infection Prevention and control in minnesota. Patsy is also a member of the board of directors and served as the first verse Voting Member of the centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on immunization practices. Doctor kathleen is the director of the id also a member of the board of directors she serves as the asip liaison on behalf of the Infectious Disease society of america. My colleagues here are all experts in their fields and are as passionate as i am about the importance of Public Health and disease prevention through vaccination. We will talk more about why flu vaccinations are particularly important for children and then discuss the Significant Impact of the flu on older adults, why and when to get vaccinated and specific influenza vaccines designed to boost the immunity in the 65 plus population. She will also discuss the importance of the vaccination in protecting vulnerable populations. We are pleased to have a strong showing of support from the part where is representing Public Health, medical societies, government industry advocacy and consumer focused organizations. It is substantially higher today than it was 20 or ten years ago. And we now produce an ample supply of vaccine and vaccination options. If you are at least six months of age in the United States, there is a flu vaccine for you. We are still not meeting the public goals for the coverage among the individual age and risk groups. I would like to see that the flu is fickle. During any given season millions are second, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized and hundreds of tens of thousands die from the flu and its complications. Im often asked how severe will the season be. It will be severe and there will always be a flu season. Annual flu vaccination is the first and best line of defense. We dont have to think about it. The recommendations are very straightforward if you are older than six years of age. And for Healthcare Professionals it is critically important that we lead by example by getting vaccinated to protect our patients and ourselves. I also want to remind every one of the take three approached the flu prevention and in addition to the annual vaccination this includes practicing every day preventive actions to help prevent the spread of the flu such as hand washing and avoiding contact with sick people as well as the use of antivirals in treating the flu. Following the panelist presentations, there will be a two day session for the media and it is now my pleasure to welcome doctor price. [applause] thank you so much for the introduction and allowing me to join. Its a great privilege to join for this incredibly important topic and i want to thank you so much for your work its always an honor to be introduced by a veteran of the United StatesPublic Health and an honor as the secretary to joi secretary t and raise awareness about the key publichealth issue. Vaccines are among the greatest achievements of modern times but they are only as useful as we take advantage of them so im thankful for the work in our panelists today shedding some light on the topic that has a major impact on the health of the nation every single year and that is the issue of influenza. In my brief remarks i would like to remind everyone about the burden that the flu puts on the American People in our families and communities and i would like to discuss the Current Situation with regards to the vaccines and a little bit about the larger context of influenza and the potential for pandemics and most importantly as mentioned, encourage everyone six months and older take the flu vaccination a part of their yearly routine. Lets start with what the influenza is. Its not just a couple of simple couple days at home with a runny nose. It can be worse than a few days away from school or work. Its a potentially serious respiratory illness that can lead to hospitalization and sometimes a. This is especially true for certain groups of people, specifically older adults, pregnant women and people with longterm medical conditions and Young Children. But even the young and healthy adults can suffer from severe complications of influenza. The publichealth consensus is very straightforwar straightfors important for everyone six months and older to get a flu vaccine every year by the end of these remarks and those on the panel we will all join together and say six months and older for everyone to get a flu vaccine and it is remarkably easy there are thousands upon thousands of places you can get a flu shot. If you go to the cdc. Gov mac flu there is a finder you can put in your zip code and choose from many places. Again the stakes are very serious. Each season it causes millions of mrs. , hundreds of thousands of hospitalization and thousands were sometimes tens of thousands of death. The seriousness of each varies the complete. We estimate since 2010 that related hospitalizations in the United States ranged from the aw of 140,000 a high of 710,000. During the same time they estimate that it has killed between 12,00 told falsehoods to 56,000 people each year. But whatever it looks like, the numbers are far too high especially when we consider that there is a vaccine that could prevent significant portion of this disease. Unfortunately, the annual look at the numbers of people who report getting their flu vaccine shows the numbers have actually plateaued and leveled off among people sixmonth and older for coverage during the 2016 and 2017 flu season was 46. 8 leaving more than half of all americans unprotected from the flu. Even when the effectiveness is on the lower end it still presents a great deal of suffering and illness and with vaccine effectiveness of 42 last season at estimates a flu shot prevented about 5. 4 million cases of the flu come a 2. 7 million doctors visits and 86,000 hospitalizations with just a 5 increase in vaccination they estimate another 490,000 illnesses and 7,000 hospitalizations could have been avoided. So theres a lot of room for improvement because the flu shots are produced by private sector manufacturers and supplied us depend in part on demand. Manufacturers predict they will provide 151 to 166 million doses of vaccine for the u. S. Market this season in different formulations. Last season 146 million were distributed. This season afloat to decod fleu shots as opposed to the nasal vaccines are recommended. There are many options. There is no preference for one vaccine over another. One is just as good as another. We know that they are perfect as mentioned into the effectiveness ranges between 40 to 60 each year and that means that a persons risk of getting sick with the flu and needing to see a doctor or 40 to 60 less than someone who didnt get vaccinated which are pretty good odds. We also know that the vaccine can prevent Serious Health challenges including hospitalization. We would like to see even more effective vaccines and we are working on it through investments in the private sector at nih and cdc and in the private sector we are making improvements to existing vaccines. We are also working on something very exciting at the nih, something called the universal vaccine thauniversalvaccine thae longlasting immunity against many different flu viruses including bird flu virus but have the potential to cause catastrophic influenza pandemic. I would also like to briefly mention vaccines that protect against another serious disease and that is the pneumococcal disease was mentioned. It can cause a range of serious illnesses and is a common and deadly complication of influenza. He cheered about 520,000 adults 65 or older at the disease and about 18,000 of them will die. Theres two types of vaccines recommended. The cdc recommends a vaccination for everyone aged 65 and older in four adults with certain Chronic Health conditions like diabetes and Heart Disease and lung disorders as well as for people who smoke. When adults are getting their yearly flu vaccine it is a great time to make sur sure youre uptodate on your vaccines and other recommended vaccinations, things like pneumonia, hepatitis and thickness. Fitness. The recommendations very depending on your Health Status and lifestyle and travel plans and the like so its important that you talk with your doctor and discuss the importance of vaccinations you believe are important to you would like to take part in. Vaccines including pneumococcal vaccines are everywhere so theres no reason not to get protected. Adults can get their vaccines to doctors offices, pharmacies, workplaces and Community Health centers and so many other areas. I would like to touch briefly on understanding the seriousness that is sometimes aided by historical perspective. Ask cheered 2018 is the 100th anniversary of the spanish flu. That is a long time ago in a long time before all of us were born. My grandfather who graduated medical school in 1908 was ten years in practice at the time of the deadly pandemic so it isnt ancient history. The spanish flu infected one third of the worlds population. Think about that, one third of the worlds population. 50 Million People died worldwide including 5,000 americans, almost as many as were lost in the entire civil war in just a year. Catastrophic impact of the 1918 pandemic left a legacy. The ability to jump from animals to people poses one of the worlds greatest Infectious Disease challenges and or annual efforts to protect against seasonal flu are the foundation for the response to the pandemic. We take the work of the pandemic prepared this extremely seriously and President Trump and the administration are committed to building relationships around the world to be in force security. Countries invested deeply in the National Vaccine preparedness and weve had a chance to see that firsthand both here at home and abroad. Hhs and private partners are constantly researching ways to generate more pandemic vaccines cheaper and faster than we aim to continue in those capabilities. In closing less revisit how each and every one of us can take charge of our own health and prepare ourselves for flu season. In the threestep approach first they flu vaccine. Every one to si of six months ad older should get an annual flu vaccination. Its best to get vaccinated before the activity starts so that is usually in october so the time is now. Remember cdc. Gov. You can look at the site to find where vaccines are able to be provided near you and other providers are incredibly important in this. Your recommendation is crucial to getting vaccinated and its also important for physicians and other providers to get vaccinated themselves to protect yourself and your patience. The vaccine viruses that circulate a chain from season to season isnt put into getting vaccine every single year. The second step we recommend is to take everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs, stay home if youre sick of weight people who are ill and as always, practice good hygiene. Washing your hands and covering for costs means you cough into your elbow not in your hand which is incredibly important and last but not least, take the antiviral drugs if your prescriptioproviderprescribes t. We want those that are sick and at high risk ohave higher risk f complications to get treated quickly. Taking antivirals can prevent more serious outcomes. We dont want you to get to that point so make the flu vaccination may Healthy Habit and as i mentioned that time is now so i want to thank you for your time today and challenge you to spread the word about the flu vaccines and not spread the flu. And just as a demonstration of the importance of the flu vaccinations, im here to get my own flu vaccine today. So thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for that good information and call to action. I would liken to kno like him te are particularly pleased that an Orthopedic Surgeon is working to prevent the flu. Surgeons are very incisive and you are making very incisive remarks. And we thank for sharing for shr administering the vaccine. There you go [applause] thank you doctor price. We are grateful to him for leading by example. We will say goodbye to doctor price [inaudible] we know hes heading off to many other important meetings today. Let me focus on a few of the points that doctor price mentioned. About 78 of health care for somehow reported receiving vaccination during the 2016 to 2017 season. A Vaccination Coverage continued to be higher among healthcare personnel in hospitals. The large institutions are getting it done. They are getting all of their personnel vaccinated however, the rates are stil still low wee among healthcare person now working in ambulatory and longterm care facilities, so we as Health Care Professionals still have work to do. In addition about 53 of pregnant women reported vaccination before or during pregnancy. That is a great measure of progress that you can see roughly half of pregnant women during the influenza season still didnt get vaccinated, so we all have to do more work. It is now my pleasure to introduce patricia. Good morning. Thank you. I am so pleased to be here to talk about the importance of the flu vaccine in children. As a pediatric Nurse Practitioner i often hear people say its just the flu and i think they might be confusing things with more mild diseases such as the common cold or a mild stomach flu. But a runny nose and cough you got over quickly, we wouldnt vaccinated. Unfortunately the flu is very severe and i have to remind everyone that children do die of influenza. In the u. S. Open last year, 105 children died of influenza. And this is well below the number of average deaths per year. Even back in 09 and 2010, we saw as many as 358 children die of influenza. In addition to pediatric deaths, we estimate that since 2010, flu related hospitalizations among children younger than five years of age ranged from 7,000 to 26,000 children in the hospital every year. Working in a Childrens Hospital as i have for 30 years, we take care of the sickest of the sick and i can tell you that i see way too many children in the i icq. Its a situation for those who care for them and their families. While the complications are most common in children two years of age, i can remind us that bad outcomes can happen to anybody with underlining chronic diseases such as asthma or neurological problems with the difficulty. But also healthy children with no chronic diseases. Thats why i believe the words shouldnt be in the same sentence. Unless of course youre going to say i just got my flu vaccine. So they enable vaccination is the first and most important step protecting children against influenza. The data adds to the strong body of evidence about the benefits of influenza vaccines for children. It reduces the risk of flu associated deaths by 51 of children who have underlining chronic conditions and by 65 in healthy children. Its the right thing to do to vaccinate our children and we recently where i work completed a threeyear look back of the seasons of influenza and we compared the influenza disease for those with less severe and we are waiting for publication notice, but i will just tell you what he learned and its similar to what was in the pediatrics that the kids of all ages we have 400 for children over three seasons of influenza, age one they were healthy kids with chronic illness. Three things that stood out 57 of them had not had a flu vaccine. We also know that those children who were more severely ill stay at home longer before they came to the hospital. So if you as a parent have the feeling that youre child is ill and you are worried, listen to that and bring them to the hospital sooner than later. We realize as clinicians we play a role in more severe illness, children who have one or more missed opportunities to vaccinate would have more severe illness. So as you bring your child to a clinic and er in hospitals. As a clinician whether it is a healthy wellchild check, physical or broken wrist should see the flu vaccine season and i see yoandicuand isee you haven. Lets make sure as clinicians we dont have a missed opportunity. Because the risk of severe outcomes is high but im pleased to say 76. 3 of the children in the u. S. Age 23 months older vaccinated last season. As it is outlined. This is the only age group of children and the only age Group Overall thickness of the goal. Influenza vaccination does cover decrease as we get the person we are going to vaccinate but that teenager is dressed as important. The goal is to increase coverage for children of all ages as every child deserves to be protected. If your child gets the flu, they expose everyone around them. This may include babies in the household are too young to be immunized with less than six months of age and it may include grandparents who may be immune suppressed or have other chronic illnesses. It may include a pregnant woman. We must make sure that we vaccinate th