Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 19, 2019 PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP IS WORKING TO MODERNIZE AND IMPROVE INFLUENZA VACCINES    “We want a safe and healthy future for every American family.” – President Donald J. Trump   MODERNIZING INFLUENZA VACCINES: President Donald J. Trump is safeguarding public health by helping ensure Americans have access to effective influenza vaccines.  Today, President Trump signed an executive order to modernize influenza vaccines and help protect more Americans through vaccination. At President Trump’s direction, the Administration will work to promote new technologies to improve vaccine manufacturing and effectiveness. This will reduce reliance on more time-consuming, egg-based vaccine production.    Improving the speed of production will enable experts to better match vaccines to actively circulating viruses, an important piece of making the vaccines more effective.   The Administration will advance the development of new, more effective vaccines. The Trump Administration will also work to increase Americans’ access to vaccines by reducing barriers to seasonal flu vaccine services.  To help put these objectives into action, President Trump is establishing a task force to identify policy priorities and monitor progress. PROTECTING LIVES THROUGH PREVENTION: Influenza vaccines are vitally important to disease prevention, yet current production methods need to be improved. Influenza vaccines are the best way to save lives, reduce the illness severity, and prevent influenza infections in the first place. During the 2017–2018 flu season, influenza vaccinations prevented up to 7.1 million illnesses, 3.7 million medical visits, and 109,000 hospitalizations. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that vaccines prevented more than 40,000 flu-associated deaths over a nine-year period. It is especially important to be able to rapidly produce well-matched influenza vaccines using scalable technologies in the event of a future influenza pandemic. Despite their important role in safeguarding the health of the American people, influenza vaccines are currently produced using more time-consuming, egg-based technology. More rapid non-egg-based production methods would give experts more time to select the most relevant strains. PROMOTING PUBLIC HEALTH: Improving the influenza vaccine is part of President Trump’s longstanding effort to combat public health threats and promote quality care for all Americans.  President Trump has released a National Biodefense Strategy and a Global Health Security Strategy to help combat biological threats and pandemics. President Trump has made it a priority to increase the quality and accessibility of care for American patients. This year, the President launched a kidney health initiative to help prevent kidney failure, improve treatment options, and expand access to life-saving transplants. The Trump Administration is working to encourage new, innovative approaches to treating childhood cancer. President Trump launched an initiative to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America over the next decade.  The Administration is supporting research on new treatments for opioid addiction.