preparedness and response framework which can be used as a pandemic planning guide. the influenzarisk assessment tool which possesses potential pandemic risks posed by influenza viruses that currently circulate in animals but not in humans. a strain is scored on ten factors for the likelihood that it will change to impact people and for the potential severity if it does. the pandemic severity assessment framework guides public health officials to anticipate the severity of the pandemic once the novel virus is identified and responding in a sustained manner. ... >> so what progress have we made? due to global investment in endemic investments there's a a global lens of surveillance and response is with mechanisms to share laboratory and surveillance information. laboratory capacity has shown exponential improvement in recent years. we can sequence a full influence of virus genome and single day and they are great in protest to detect novel viruses and these are shared with more than 100 warty labs around the world. there is personal protective equipment to prevent transmission part

preparing for the future and pandemic influenza. the first thing i want to do is to make the point that when you look at influenza, preparation for seasonal influenza essentially should be the preparation for pandemic influenza in a perfect world. the perfect world that i hope we get to -- we are certainly trying hard -- is the development of what john alluded to, the vaccine. i am concerned about our capabilities today against any kind of influenza. i want to break it up into three quick parts. first of all, the current seasonal influenza vaccines are not consistently affected. that is a fact we have to face -- consistently effective. if you look at 2004 until the last year, when you have a bad year with a mismatch, you have a 10% efficacy at best. efficacy at best. compare that to other infections 98.5%sles vaccine is effective, yellow fever, pouliot is more than 90% effective. there are a lot of reasons for that. we all know about the fact that the response against the hemoagglutinin -- drips from year-to-year and sometimes shifts

recently several thousand of these birds were sampled for evidence of the 1918 influenza pandemic week as we had words in 1918. we have those birds and we sample 25 of the six tested positive for the influenza. we have in our collections fossil examples of diseases. when diseases break out there are times when those outbreaks the vectors are not known and it's an example of the junta virus discovered so we have come to realize our collections aren't just historical artifacts with research tools and affect scientific infrastructure that allow us to investigate emerging scientific issues in areas of diseases and food security and invasive species etc. so i welcome you here today. we are going to be opening an exhibit next spring called outbreak, epidemics and the connected world and this really will map the museum perspective and the fact that human health and environmental health and animal health is related to one health and the exhibit will discuss a lot of emerging effects of diseases and present them to the huge public. couple of years ago we did an exhibit called genome about the h

," clearly very high up there in that short list is another pandemic influenza. >> reporter: that also worries michael osterholm, an epidemiologist and head of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. >> seasonal flu is the one we deal with all the time, but pandemics is a flu that frankly is the one that scares the hell out of us. >> reporter: a pandemic flu is a strain that usually jumps from an animal-- often a pig or a bird-- to a human, a new strain for which humans have no prior immunity. osterholm says the risk of a pandemic may be increasing, because meat consumption is growing worldwide and more people are in contact with poultry and pigs. >> when pandemic flu hits, it's one where everyone is vulnerable. everyone's susceptible. >> reporter: the worst flu pandemic, in 1918, killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. compared to other diseases, the flu is easily transmitted by just a cough or sneeze. osterholm warns when-- not if-- a flu pandemic hits again, th they might be infected, spread very quickly. >> reporter: osterholm

there was a point in time when katrina, pandemic influenza and the rollout of medicare part d was happening at the same time. this is a person with great experience in a complex department. most important, can i say he is an extraordinarily good human being. he has the kind of compassionate heart it requires to lead the mission of this important department and i commend him to you and urge the senate's confirmation of him as the secretary of health and human services. >> thank you for joining us again as you have before to help this committee. senator young. >> thank you, chairman alexander, ranking member murray and fellow members of this committee, i am grateful for this opportunity to introduce a fellow hoosier, alex azar, to be secretary of the department of health and human services. donald trump made an outstanding choice in selecting alex azar to lead this critical agency which happens to be the largest civilian cabinet agency and the us government. alex azar is, as has been said by a couple of individuals, and extremely qualified nominee and he is a well-known expert in the healthca

there was a point in time when , andna, pandemic influenza the rollout of medicare part b was happening at the same time. this is a personal with great experience in a complex department. say,important, can i just he is an extraordinarily good human being. he's got the kind of compassionate heart that i believe is required to serve to lead the mission of this important department. i commend him to urge the confirmation of the secretary of health and humanservices. >> thank you, governor. thank you for joining us again as you have before. senator young? sen. young: thank you, chairman and ranking member murray. and fellow members of this committee. i am grateful to introduce a , to behoosier, alex azar secretary of the department of health and human services. president trump made an outstand -- outstanding choice to lead this critical agency which happens to be the largest civilian cabinet agency in the entire u.s. government. alex, as has been said, is an extreme the qualified nominee and a well known expert in the health care industry. his previous leadership experience, and as deputy

pandemic threats. it is called outbreaks. it opens in may of next year. outbreak places influenza and other viruses, ebola, zika, and hiv in an ecological context. we present human health, animal elt and environmental health as one health and show how pandemics can result from a failure to recognize and respect that connectedness. so we do this with stories that demonstrate the principals of one health where human impacts on animal health or envir environmental health such as virus spilling over from wildlife or livestock and causing an outbreak. we explain the human drivers, the activities that spread disease such as global travel and trade and how they can cause an outbreak and threaten the health of people everywhere. we show the effects on society and the kinds of efforts needed to fight back by science and health care and policy and last but not least we explain to our visitors the fundamental role of research and vaccines in preparing us for the next pandemic. so outbreak is a new kind of exhibit for us. that's because public health is a new space for us as a museum, a space