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betterhelp, i'm here to help clients find their why closed captioning brought to you by mae sot book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> good morning. i'm phil mattingly in washington. pamela brown is out today. you are live in the cnn newsroom. and we begin with the breaking news right now on capitol hill. president trump is inching closer to finalizing the cabinet. he laid out from the beginning and crushing any tiny, lingering doubts. he is the singular leader of the republican party. at any moment, the senate will begin voting on tulsi gabbard to be the next director of national

intelligence, and she is all but certain to be confirmed along party lines. despite initial, very clear bipartisan concerns about her lack of significant background in intelligence and some of her past statements that seem to support u.s. adversaries. after that vote, the senate will pivot to robert f. kennedy, jr.. senators will vote to advance his once embattled nomination to lead the department of health and human services. kennedy and gabbard were among president trump's most controversial nominees. now on the cusp of confirmation. let's break this all down. we have our correspondents and analysts here to walk us through a very, very busy hour. manu raju on capitol hill. i want to start with you. we saw some republican senators vote voice early concerns about both of these nominees. were those real and kind of how did they come around to what looks like soon to be confirmation yeah. >> it's been a combination of pressures, combination of some subtle and maybe not so subtle arm twisting from administration allies and direct conversation with donald trump himself with

some of those republican senators, some senators, like senator todd young of indiana, had some real concerns about tulsi gabbard. a lot of those issues that you laid out there. but he did speak to gabbard repeatedly got some commitments from her and also spoke with donald trump as well. and that happened also with rfk jr.. he himself, he spoke directly with senators who were skeptical about his nomination, and he seemed to have won them over. even people who were concerned about his views on issues like vaccines and whether or not he would support the science behind the vaccines and would knock down the notion that vaccines are linked to childhood autism. some of his comments walking back from his past statements were enough to assuage republican senators, and even on issues like abortion. robert f kennedy jr., somebody who has espoused abortion issues that are in line with his former party, the democratic party, he made commitments like senators, like senator josh hawley that he would not deviate from donald trump's position opposing abortion. >> i'm going to vote for him based on his commitments to me, based on life that he said that

he would implement president trump's agenda from his first term. >> you believe him on the abortion issue? >> oh, yeah. he testified under oath that he would reimpose all of the pro-life protections. if he doesn't do that, we'll have a big problem because he told me under oath he would. so, yeah, i believe if not, it's it's not going to be pleasant. we've done everything we can to find him, and we're not done fighting him. but we need some of the republican members to decide. they're not going to cater to every whim of this president. >> and that last comment coming from senator adam schiff, a freshman democrat from california, and laying out the stark reality for democrats here, is they simply just do not have the votes to stop any of these nominees unless republicans defect. really, for republicans would need to defect on any party line vote. and we do not expect that either for tulsi gabbard or robert f. kennedy jr.. the votes to watch in this gabbard vote, that's going to happen. that's happening in this hour is what will mitch mcconnell, the

republican former republican leader, do on that? and what will john curtis, a freshman republican senator from utah? but even if they both vote no, phil, that will not be enough to stop the nomination. and that same issue with robert f. kennedy jr.. no republicans are opposed at the moment and certainly doesn't seem like forwood, which means that they're very, very likely to get their job gabbard as soon as today. >> yeah, it seemed a lot dicier a couple of weeks ago. manu raju on capitol hill. keep us posted from there. david, shane, i want to go to you because it was funny watching his interview with josh hawley was like the it was like he just realized that perhaps a cabinet official would go back on their word and was like, wow, that would be bad. but what he's laying out there is critical, which is i remember the meeting he had before any of the hearings with rfk jr.. and right after that meeting, he posted a thread of tweets saying rfk has promised on x, y, and z related to abortion critical the way the trump administration has gone about getting these people to this point is not a small thing. >> yeah, it's not like a senator hawley had to extract that from rfk jr.. he went into these

meetings with a plan that he knew to get people on the republican in the republican conference on the right. some pro, uh, pro.

>> have been shared among republicans and democrats. the first is her utter lack of experience on an intelligence level. of course, she's served in the military for quite some time, but never in any kind of intelligence capability. and now she's being asked to run not just one, but oversee 18 different intelligence agencies. and then there's the question of her past statements that has been of great concern to to republicans and democrats. she was pummeled in her confirmation hearing about, uh, about about edward snowden and a desire to pardon him. time after time, she was questioned about whether he was a traitor. and she she wouldn't say that that was that. susan collins, republican on the senate intelligence committee, coming out of the gate asking about that, her past statements about putin and ukraine and how the west and ukraine provoked that war, her

visit to assad in syria, um, she did manage to convince the swing republican votes on the senate intelligence committee. susan collins and todd young, to vote for her. so she got out of committee. and so it does appear that she is on her way to a glide path for this nomination. um, it is it is not without its complications, and it is not without its reservations. but it does appear that because of the backing of trump, that she will get those republicans to to line up behind her. >> you're watching senator ron wyden, a democrat on the floor, speaking now, alayna treene, who's over for us at the white house. i want to talk to you because alex makes a good point about kind of what we saw publicly. and in that hearing where i don't think anybody on either side of the aisle thought gabbard came out of it looking particularly like she was on a glide path. but the behind the scenes, you've done a ton of reporting on this that they were able to kind of secure conversations that were critical to getting her to this point. walk people through that. >> right. i mean, i can't overstate how crucial some of the behind the scenes, you know,

jockeying and back channeling really was, particularly from the side of the white house. president donald trump, as manu mentioned, was directly involved in some of these conversations. but after that hearing in particular that you mentioned where there was a lot of concerns over gabbard's response on whether snowden was a traitor to the united states for what he did. the white house helped set up a bunch of meetings between gabbard and some of the skeptical republican senators to try and bring them on board. when i talked to different white house officials about it, they said they really believed that it was in those meetings, those closed door meetings. after her hearing that convinced them to kind of come on to their side and support gabbard out of that committee hearing. now, we also know, in addition to donald trump, vice president j.d. vance, he was mentioned in a couple senators statements for convincing them not just with tulsi, but also rfk jr.. to come on board with their nomination or their confirmation as well. so very much, you know, we're seeing the trump team very directly involved with this. one thing that i find interesting, though, as well, is what i've

been told about the broader picture. if you want to take a step back and look at this, a lot of people i've spoken with, people close to the president, people inside the trump administration. they argued that the work on getting these nominees through is a crucial test of the president's power on capitol hill. they recognize that they, especially after matt gaetz, had to withdraw his nomination because he wasn't going to have enough support. they felt that they had to get the others through because they didn't want there to be this precedent that the president would be kind of bowing to congress on this. they want congress to be the ones responding to the president. >> yeah. and on the verge of a clean sweep post, matt gaetz, we want to dip back into the senate floor where senator wyden, who's the top democrat on the senate finance committee, which oversaw the robert f. kennedy nomination, is speaking. >> health care possible rather than having a handful of health care companies being gobbled up in the entire market for health insurance, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and even doctors. the results have been great for shareholder profits and

disastrous for american families. costs keep climbing. the act of getting a doctor's appointment or filing an insurance claim seems to have become an olympic sport in much of america. the system delays and denies care and rakes in profits, while patients are left wondering how they're going to get the care they need. so the question before the senate now is whether we want america's chief health officer to be somebody who's going to take on those corporate interests, somebody who's going to fight tooth and nail to lower costs and improve care, somebody who's going to work to protect and improve the federal health care programs that tens of millions of americans rely on them and not gut everything i've seen and heard from mr. kennedy over these last few weeks has led me, colleagues, to conclude he is not the person that america needs. americans have little reason to take mr. kennedy at his word. they do, however, have every reason to believe mr. kennedy will continue to embrace and amplify

anti vaccine programs. every reason to believe is he will back up donald trump's abortion bans and every reason exists to examine the prospect that he'll be a rubber stamp for the republican health agenda that would rip away the health care of so many americans over the next 24 hours. democrats are going to show the american people why these concerns are so serious. i yield the floor, and i urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination. >> that was senator ron wyden, the top democrat on the senate finance committee. we are awaiting the vote to confirm tulsi gabbard for the director of national intelligence. wyden, talking about the vote to advance robert f. kennedy, jr.. s nomination to be health and human services secretary that is expected to follow that his nomination vote will be, as he said, about 30 ish hours later. we're going to keep an eye on this, keep watching the senate floor as we wait for these votes to kick off in just a moment. stay with us. >> anderson cooper.

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the top u.s. intelligence official overseeing 17 intelligence agencies. i believe i'll defer to my colleague alex marquardt on the specifics of that. after that vote, we will have a procedural vote on robert f kennedy jr.. s nomination that will move him one step closer to confirmation as well as we keep an eye on the floor. alex marquardt, when you look at the role that tulsi gabbard will be taking on the scale of it seems enormous, but it's within a system where there are other key players. what will she be doing in this administration? >> and that is exactly the right question, because we know the concerns and that led up to this vote. and now it does appear that she's going to get through. so what is her role look like now? this was a role that was created after 9/11 to act essentially as a coordinator across the intelligence agencies. technically, this is the most senior intelligence officer in the administration, though directors of the cia might quibble with that. and oftentimes both are members of the cabinet, as will be the case here. but it's all going to come down to how trump decides to use

gabbard and all presidents use their dni in different ways. you do have the traditional ones, like a james clapper, who, of course, was in the room when bin laden was killed, or a dan coats and most recently avril haines. and when you look at those pictures from inside the situation room there, right at the head of the table, near the head of the table, alongside the secretaries of defense and secretaries of state. so those past examples have been really loud voices when it comes to intelligence matters. and keep in mind, the director of national intelligence there, there, the definition of their role is they're the senior advisor on intelligence issues for the president. will trump use her that way? that remains to be seen. there are obviously a lot of voices around trump and on on any, any of a number of issues. we're always asking ourselves, well, who is actually the loudest voice when it comes to this issue? you know, i'm focusing obviously on on foreign policy. you look at ukraine today, is it pete hegseth, is it keith kellogg, is it going to be tulsi gabbard? and that's where they're going to be. some concerns from a lot of republicans and democrats because of the past statements that she's made about ukraine,

about putin, about nato. so is she really going to be a loud voice when it comes to weighing in on the questions of the day? the dni, the director of national intelligence, is in charge of the president's daily brief, the pdb, the intelligence briefing that the president gets each day. will she be the one delivering it? will it be a career official from the cia? i think it really remains to be seen, but the last thing i'll say is what got susan collins across the line. and susan collins actually wrote the bill that brought odni that created dni is that she said that she thinks that tulsi gabbard can bring dni back to its roots. roots, and actually trim the size of the bureaucracy and get it back to its its true role of coordinating these different agencies. and so that appears to be her task at hand. but i will really be watching closely how much she is a voice in the room when it comes to the different foreign policy priorities. >> you know, alex, when you cite all those previous examples of the dni through republican and

democratic administrations and including the previous trump administration that you were citing, it seems to me, and in talking to folks around the president, part of why she is going to be in this job is to actually be a complete contrast to all of those examples. disruption is part of the mission of this appointment of this nomination, and i'm not quite sure that we know yet what that disruption will look like, but it is both with gabbard and kennedy, quite frankly, uh, controversial as they may be, donald trump sees both of these policy areas as part of the so-called deep state that he is looking to completely upend. and i don't think we know what it looks like when those pieces are upended. >> all right. we're going to take a break. stay with us. we're going to actually watch. we're listening in to the senate floor right now as we await the final vote tally for tulsi gabbard's nomination. >> thanks. >> barrasso, blackburn. >> brit bud cassidy, cotton.

crapo. curtis daines grassley. johnson. justice. lankford. moran. mullen. risch. rounds. schmidt. scott of south carolina sheehy. >> tillis. >> tuberville. mr.. hoeven i. >> clarity of what everybody is watching right now. senators get to come in and vote. they don't technically have a clock on them. they may claim otherwise. what you just heard was a clerk reading off the votes of those who have voted yes. anybody who hasn't voted can come in and vote while they're doing it. i'll just say it's actually a very cool thing to watch. if you're a senate procedural nerd, you see the pages sitting down there. >> senate procedural. >> nerds. i've met some adjacent. i'm adjacent to them. yeah. the guy sitting down right next to the to the desk or the the pages who actually run the senate. um, but are actually enormously helpful. so we're continuing to watch the senators come in. i believe you see somebody wearing an eagles jersey right there who clearly lost a bet. um, at some point,

um, you know, you're allowed to have a little bit of fun, although you're supposed to be wearing a jacket and a tie on the senate floor as we continue to kind of watch these votes. i'm sorry, is that a jeremy maclin jersey? that's yeah, that's old school. um, i can't tell who. >> it is. senator moran from kansas. >> it's got to be either missouri or kansas, i assume. um, sorry, we're a little pulled away right now. um, to your point, though, david, as we continue to watch these votes, the the political coalition is the reason why rfk and tulsi gabbard are were even in consideration. because if four years ago, you would have said rfk is going to be the health secretary for a republican president, and tulsi gabbard is going to be running intel, it would have been like a crazy mad libs section of things that would never happen. but trump seems to understand politically as well as the your point in terms of what they could do for policy, how critical these people and the base that they bring with them were to his

coalition winning. >> yes. and i think it's key, the way you just phrased that, because i don't think that they are sort of just natural fits into the most traditional version of the maga world we think of, and yet they both represent a real current, whether with rfk jr., the make america health make america wealthy again movement inside the maga world, that proved to be quite politically potent this cycle. and rfk jr. was the face of that. and so part of why the trump folks were so eager to get his endorsement. it wasn't it wasn't just like a high profile famous democratic last name. it was. he actually had some currency and followers in a movement that came with him. and now not as just a reward to put him in the position in government, but actually to try and bust up some of this policy that they think has been so bloated and gone awry from the mission of health policy in the government. >> guys, stay with me. i want to go to manu raju, who has some

new reporting on one senator that we've been watching very closely. what have you got? >> yeah, this is freshman gop senator john curtis, someone who had actually expressed concerns with tulsi gabbard's nomination not too long ago. in fact, just last week, he put out a statement saying that he was concerned about her confirmation hearing, and he indicated that he wanted to go back and review this nomination, but he just put out a statement indicating that he's a yes. and he voted for her confirmation on the floor of the united states senate, saying in the statement, after working through a process examining her nomination, consulting with experts, i will be voting yes. and he said that anyone that followed my process knows my vote was not predetermined, but the fact that my trusted colleagues in the intelligence committee support her was significant. so that shows you how important the committee process is to some of these senators. remember, in that committee process, it was unclear what susan collins would do. it was unclear what todd young would do. there were the ones in particular we were watching when they became a yes. those republican senators that essentially assured tulsi

gabbard's confirmation that same same dynamic played out if an rfk jr. in his confirmation hearing and his consideration in the senate finance committee. if one senator broke ranks on the gop side, then that would be enough to stop the nomination. in that case, bill cassidy voted yes. that was enough to bring him to the floor. and some of these republicans who are wavering on what to do saw the committees move ahead and said, okay, i'm going to listen to what the committee has decided, and i'm going to follow their lead. and that's what senator john curtis decided to do. one other person to watch here in this vote, mitch mcconnell, we're told at the moment he has not voted yet. the former republican leader and his office has not said which way he will come down. he has expressed some concerns about some of trump's national security picks, namely pete hegseth, who he voted against one of the three republican senators to vote against pete hegseth for his nomination to be the defense secretary. what will he do here? but even if mcconnell is a no vote, that would mean there's bipartisan opposition, but very little bipartisan opposition, because she is on path to be confirmed as the next director of national intelligence after

these senators who were wavering, like senator john curtis, voting yes, ensuring that she is going to get the job here after this confirmation vote. phil. >> yeah, it appeared like a high wire act at various points. now, slowly but surely, everybody lining up to the president's picks deferential, but also, i think, respecting the effort put in to get them to this point. manu raju the team here. stay with us. i believe that's eric schmidt, the missouri senator wearing the jerry macklin jersey, which would make sense. jeremy maclin was is that that would make. no, i don't think it is. >> it was roger marshall. >> is it? roger marshall was. >> and apparently senator mccormick was helping him. >> get it on. my sincere apologies to senator schmidt. macklin went to missouri, so i was trying to put two and two together. i couldn't see the back of the head. am i down a rabbit hole here? yes, i am, but that's why i have david chalian here to fact check me. stick with us. we're continuing to wait for the final votes to come in for tulsi gabbard's nomination to be director of national intelligence. >> have i got news for you is back for another season. roy wood jr, amber ruffin and

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don't wait, call, click or visit an xfinity store today. needs. we got you. connect with the provider at prokopec lockerbie sunday at. >> nine on. >> cnn. >> we are continuing to follow the breaking news. the senate vote on tulsi gabbard's nomination to be director of national intelligence is underway. yes, we expect her to be confirmed. yes, she has the requisite number of votes. however, a vote is not called until the gavel drops. we're continuing to wait. we're also waiting to see if senate senator mitch mcconnell how he ends up voting as well. i want to go back to manu raju, who has been following kind of all of these dynamics. also, i believe you just spoke to a top democrat, senator richard durbin. what are

you hearing, manu? >> yeah, the democrats recognize that there's very little that they can do. i asked dick durbin, could you have done anything differently? you guys fought this tooth and nail. what else? he said, what can we do? we don't have simply don't have the votes. he called the prospects and the expectation that robert f. kennedy jr. will be confirmed in. durbin has already called that frightening. but that's really not it. it's really fallen on deaf ears of sorts among most republican senators who are really falling in line in both of these nomination votes. we do expect that the shou chew, both tulsi gabbard is and to be confirmed here. and i'm just seeing that mitch mcconnell, we're watching him go in towards the vote right now. he's the one republican senator we are watching. and if he's a no vote, he may be the only republican no vote. he did not answer questions from reporters on his way into the senate chamber. that's someone to watch here. but again, even if he is a no, that means that there would be almost certainly either a 5248 confirmation. she

only needs 50 in order to get the job with jd vance. the vice president could break any tie of sorts. we don't expect that to even to get to that level. so the worst it could get for tulsi gabbard in this vote expectation 5248 she gets confirmed or 5347 a straight party line vote. and that's the situation that democrats are in. yes, they can slow down a lot of these nominations. yes they can. they can be upset and they can make their arguments, but they can't stop it. if republicans don't break ranks. and what we've seen through the nomination after nomination, even the most controversial ones that republicans are almost totally, universally in lockstep behind donald trump's picks, the only loss donald trump has had so far was when he had to pull back on matt gaetz to be the attorney general. that was before he was even formally nominated to the post. but every other one that has generated a significant controversy, like the two we're seeing today, tulsi gabbard robert f. kennedy jr., the efforts behind the scenes to reassure those members, and also the pressure campaign that was mounted as well, helped ensure that they get they got the votes, which we're going to see here in a matter of minutes when

they call this vote tulsi gabbard to get this job, a critical job, and then they'll move on to vote on clearing a democratic filibuster, breaking a democratic filibuster for robert f. kennedy jr., who's expected to get his job by tomorrow night. phil. >> yeah, the only outstanding question, as manu outlined so brilliantly, is how mitch mcconnell is going to vote. the former senate republican leader. we're keeping an eye on the floor right now. shout out to manu producers. i know what it's like to fly blind in the senate hallways. we're keeping you posted on that. so we'll see when mcconnell walks in. but gabbard on her way to confirmation. we're going to take a quick break. everybody stay with us. we'll be back as this vote concludes.

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policy qualifies, or call one 800 481 700 coventry direct redefining insurance. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you saturday at nine on cnn. >> we are continuing to watch the vote on tulsi gabbard's nomination to be director of national intelligence. very well on its way to confirmation. still waiting for the final tally to come in. we do know mitch mcconnell, the former senate republican leader, now senator, just senator, republican from kentucky has voted no. the second time he's gone against the trump national security pick. i want to go back to manu raju, who is in the hallways tracking senators and has one with him right now. >> yeah, that's right. that's senator peter welch, a democrat of vermont. but that was the news we were looking for. what

will senate republican leader, the former senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, do on this vote? one of the two republican swing votes, one of them, john curtis, voted yes. mitch mcconnell voted no. what is your reaction, senator? senator mcconnell, now are to national security picks broke with trump both at pete hegseth to be defense secretary and now tulsi gabbard. and he could be the lone republican. what's your reaction to that? >> well i'm impressed with senator mcconnell. i mean, the question is loyalty to trump. >> and a lot of the republican colleagues are very loyal to trump and fearful of straying. and then loyal to national security. and on these two really important national security considerations, hegseth, with very little to no experience, gabbard with little to no experience and really questionable conduct. mitch mcconnell voted to protect national security. >> these two votes, these two nominations, you guys, the democrats battled tooth and nail over gabbard robert f. kennedy jr.. gabbard is about to be confirmed here in a matter of minutes. robert f. kennedy jr.

about to clear a democratic filibuster, probably be confirmed by tomorrow. what did you guys do that? did you miss the mark in making your case to your republican colleagues? and what could you have done differently? >> well, we could have won 51 seats. and the reality is there's 53 republicans. if they stuck together with just a few strays, they were going to be able to win. we did our level best to raise the question of competence and what their history was. the anti-vaccine history of robert kennedy is questionable. comments. the same thing with gabbard, where she supported edward snowden, who betrayed our intelligence community. she hung out with bashar al assad. but in the end, that didn't make a difference to the majority. and the majority, i think, had a lot of questions that they would acknowledge. but the vote they had to make had to stand the test of trump. >> and rfk jr.. for one, he tried to clean up those vaccine comments in his confirmation hearings. that wasn't enough to satisfy satisfy your concerns. >> well, your term is exactly

right. cleanup. no. everybody's in on the game here. you have a lifetime of fighting against vaccines. and then when you're up for confirmation, you say, oh, no, just kidding. so the question for all of us, if we want to be serious in the evaluation of these candidates, is look at what they did, look at their history. don't look at what they're saying to try to get our vote. >> all right. senator from vermont, thank you so much for your perspective. appreciate it. and phil, back to you. but you're hearing a lot of what democrats are saying. they're concerned about what happened. they're saying they couldn't really do much. they didn't have the votes and they didn't have republican enough republican defections. just one here right now on tulsi gabbard, but a significant one. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, sending another message to the white house. >> yeah, manu, i appreciated the kind of plainspoken, if we had 51 votes, maybe that would help from a former house guy. i think that's probably reflective of that. i do want to ask you about mcconnell, though. you've covered him for so many years. the decision to go against two national security picks, obviously unencumbered by leadership at this point. what do you make of it? >> yeah, it is really significant. remember after he

came out of the leadership, he was telling his colleagues that he has the shackles off and he feels that he could really be a free agent, so much different than his time as the republican leader, who he believed that he had to essentially take arrows for his colleagues, take unpopular positions and try to push his his agenda forward, get his republican members to fall in line behind whatever his party ultimately believed was beneficial at that moment. now, a much different view. he views national security and a more robust presence in the world as one of his premier issues that he is fighting for. and he also is trying to defend the institution of the united states senate itself. he's the chairman of the senate rules committee and also chairman of a key defense subcommittee. but on the national security front, he is this is an issue that he will continue to push hard against. and we'll see how the white house responds. trump responds, but a swing vote on some of these national security questions, no doubt about it. >> yeah. the cornerstone of his career now in a very different

moment when it comes to votes, as manu knows better than anybody at decades plus of covering former leader mcconnell. all right. we are continuing to watch this vote waiting for the final tally to be called as tulsi gabbard moves towards confirmation as director of national intelligence. we'll be back in a moment experience advanced technology. >> in the buick envision. >> equipped with the largest in class, ultra wide 30 inch diagonal display and google built in. >> compatibility, innovation. >> is at your fingertips. buick exceptional. >> by design. >> tap into etsy for original and affordable home and style pieces like lighting under $150 to brighten your vibe for under $100, put your best look forward with vintage jackets or pick up custom shelving for under 50 to make space without emptying your pockets, and get cozy with linen robes for 75 or. >> less. >> for affordable home and style finds to help you welcome

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in. 5248 gabbard was confirmed. all republicans but mitch mcconnell voted yes. all democrats and senators who caucus with the democratic party voted no. now, moving on to a procedural vote for robert f. kennedy jr., who's been talking about health issues likely to move forward to be health and human services secretary. we'll probably have some say over the next issue. we're going to be talking about flu season. it is in full force across the united states, and by one measure, it is the most intense 15 years in 15 years. this morning, we are paging cnn's chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, to answer your questions. doctor gupta, jeff from chandler, arizona, tells us that he was vaccinated in september, still got the flu. so he asked, quote, why can't we get a better match between the vaccine and the strains actually out there? yeah. >> this was one of the most common questions we get. and just. >> to paint a little bit of a picture. >> for you when. >> they're making the flu. >> vaccine, they sort of have to predict. >> how the flu virus is going to change for the next season, what strains are going to be predominantly straining. so it's a little bit like looking

into a crystal ball. so it can be challenging sometimes. so, you know, we went back and looked over time to see how effective the flu vaccine is. that means how likely is it to protect you from getting sick from going to the hospital and possibly dying? and you can take a look at the sort of trends there. phil 2010 2011 was the most effective year really, in recent years for the flu vaccine. that year of 2020, 2021. incidentally, that was during covid. so we don't have numbers for that particular time period right now, 42% roughly is what we see with the flu vaccine effectiveness so far this year, two predominant strains that are circulating h1n1. you may remember that was the 2009 pandemic and h3n2, the vaccine seems to be more effective against h1n1 than h3n2, but that that accounts for why people still may develop symptoms, may get sick, but hopefully not as sick as they otherwise would have. >> when you lay that out, it brings up the question we actually got from nancy, who asks, since the flu is still going strong, should you get the

flu shot if you haven't already? or is that just in the fall? >> short answer is yes. and let me just quickly show you this graph. i think this will make sense. the question i often get is when is flu the worst during any particular season? this is a graph sort of aggregated over 20 years to look at when you see the most flu activity, february. that's pretty consistently the time period, the month that we're in right now. so there is still benefit. it takes about two weeks after you get the flu shot to get the benefit, to get the antibodies, but we're still very much in it. >> phil and finally, from robin in utah, wants to know if a fever temperature is part of having the flu. >> almost always it is. there are some people who, interestingly don't develop fever. it can be hard to know if you have flu versus a cold flu symptoms. they come on suddenly and they're more severe. as a general rule, one thing i will tell you quickly, phil, for the first time, there is a at home flu test. now, a test where you

can actually test for the flu. this does three things covid as well as two different types of flu. this will look familiar to you. phil. i hope it doesn't trigger anything for you, but swab a little bit of reagent. and then one of these these testing kits here to try and determine whether or not you actually test positive. um, hopefully that's okay to show that the reason that it can be important at home to get the testing, especially if you're a high risk, is because there's some antivirals that are going to work best if taken within the first couple of days. so getting the at home testing, getting your results early, that can help. phil. >> yeah, i got to say, the color scheme of the box when you held it up was like, oh wait. but then i thought, i got four kids, man. like, we have the flu constantly and always. we might as well have a testing system for it. >> exactly. i'm in the same boat. >> doctor sanjay gupta, as always, my friend. really, really appreciate the help. you got it. and finally, this hour, there's a new pack leader. meet monty, the giant schnauzer. he was crowned best in show at the

westminster kennel club. the sleek, all black canine broke a long drought for the working group. he's the first from that class to take home the prize in more than 20 years. monty's owner had the best reaction to the win. the puppy did the thing. that's a direct quote. yes, the puppy did. good boy. very good boy. no, great dane, but impressive. impressive pooch. thank you for joining us. i'm phil mattingly. stay with us. inside politics with dana bash starts right after the break. >> has a. good day to cough or no. >> buh bye. >> cough chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief 12 hours. >> not coughing at the movies. >> hashtag still not coughing. mucinex dm 12 hour doesn't just quiet coughs, it treats coughs caused by excess mucus at the source and controls them for 12

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