U.S. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-PA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and Diana DeGette (D-CO), a ranking member of the committee, sent a letter on Monday to the administrators of five federal agencies to follow up on the committee’s investigation of this winter’s flu vaccine, which proved largely ineffective in squelching the severity of the flu season.
The letter, which stems from a hearing held in February to discuss the public health response this flu season, was sent to Sylvia Burwell, secretary of Health and Human Services; Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; and Dr. Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawmakers indicated that they have questions specific to each agency about how the administration can more effectively plan for and adapt to each flu season to prevent outbreaks from becoming more severe.
“The committee seeks further information regarding the U.S. public health response to seasonal influenza,” Murphy and DeGette said in the letter. “We believe understanding the lessons from this influenza season could improve the U.S. public health response in the future, particularly to a severe influenza season with a mismatched vaccine, and possibly save thousands of lives. Public health officials have already indicated that this year’s prominent strain, H3N2, will be included in next year’s vaccine.”