Susan Collins actually said...

It has been almost a century since the 1918 Spanish influenza virus infected one-fifth of the world's population.

I do want to apologize that I will, however, have to leave early due to a markup in the Appropriations Committee that begins at 10:30.

Yet virulent strains of influenza are still a major threat.

The H1N1 strain, more commonly known as the Swine Flu, claimed more than 18,000 lives during the 2009 outbreak.