Senator Tom Harkin 731 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C., 20510-1502 To the Honorable Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Senator Tom Harkin (21) and to the Honorable Members of the Subcommittee, Senator Daniel Inouye, Senator Herb Kohl, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Jack Reed, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Thad Cochran, Senator Judd Gregg, Senator Larry Craig, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Senator Ted Stevens, and Senator Richard Shelby, We the undersigned believe that an influenza pandemic will occur in the near future, a pandemic that could be as severe as the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, "Three times in the last century, the influenza A viruses have undergone major genetic changes mainly in their H-component, resulting in global pandemics and large tolls in terms of both disease and deaths. The most infamous pandemic was â