Emergency preparedness to stave off influenza, and other D.C. events

As flu season in the U.S. continues to pick up, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is meeting today with CDC and NIH officials to discuss emergency preparedness. The current season hasn’t been as severe as past years, although four children have died since October. Some reports have suggested that the flu strains in this year’s vaccine for the Southern Hemisphere aren’t matching the strains that are circulating, and how this mismatch could spell trouble for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.

Another Energy and Commerce subcommittee will be considering ways to improve FDA oversight of cosmetic products. Cosmetics companies aren’t required to get the agency’s approval prior to marketing their products, and they’re also not mandated to report any harmful events — even though the FDA gets hundreds of such reports directly from consumers every year.