Liz, we're both here in D.C.

And I don't know about you, but I feel like flu season has been kind of nuts this year.

I just got over being sick for you or your kids or anybody in your household gotten the flu this year.

We have avoided it this year.

That's our colleague Liz Estley White.

She covers health policy for the Wall Street Journal.

And while she managed to avoid the flu this year,

a lot of people in the country haven't been as lucky.

U.S. officials estimate there have been at least 23 million cases

and 19,000 deaths since October,

making this one of the worst flu seasons in recent years.

I asked you about flu season because lately you've been following a story about the FDA and a new flu shot.

Can you tell us what's been going on?

Yeah, so the FDA has gone through a lot of change in the past year and it still really surprised

people when last week, Moderna, which is a company that makes vaccines, said that the FDA

had refused to even look at its application for a new flu shot.

And today, we heard from Moderna that the FDA had, in fact, agreed to finally review its application.

Okay, so Moderna submitted an application for a new flu shot.

The FDA refused to review it, but now it is going to review it.

What does this back and forth tell you about how the FDA is thinking about new drugs

and approving new drugs in this moment?

Well, the first kind of initial refusal to even look at the shot was pretty surprising because, as

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