EU health chief: Don't travel to Mexico or U.S.

msnbc ^ | April 27, 2009 | Staff

[IbJensen]

LUXEMBOURG - The European Union's health commissioner urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to the United States or Mexico due to swine flu.

EU Health Commissioner Andorra Vassiliou met with the EU foreign ministers on the subject as Spain reported the first confirmed case of swine flu in Europe. That was also the first swine flu case outside North America.

[Jonny foreigner]

No, it can slow it very significantly if restrictions are started soon enough. It can be a case of, if this is determined to be a deadly virus a week or two from now, whether the virus is in a few dozen US communities, or a few hundred, or a few thousand...

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yes but to seriously fight a disease like this the restrictions would have to start world wide, because if not it only gives you a little more time that´s all. Just take Europe for example. it would not help to restrict travel to the US or mexico for example as long as the rest of the world would not do the same. because shure we could control everyone who enters our airports from the US and mexico but how about somone from asia or somewhere else? it would be easy possible that someone who let´s say for example arrives from Hongkong has been in the US or Mexico just days before because they may have not the same restrictions like us.

[epow]

Relatively young adults, presumably among the population's most healthy, have been the first to succumb.

This doesn't sound good at all. My son is a 42 year old airline pilot who often flies to Mexico City or Puerto Vallarta and overnights in a hotel there, and he was in Puerto Vallarta just last week. I'm going to contact him and warn him to take every possible precaution in order to avoid exposure to the virus as much as possible, although I assume Delta has already warned it's personnel about the flu outbreak down there. He is just now getting his overall health back to a relatively normal state after a 1-1/2 year battle with cancer, and one of the last things he needs now is exposure to this flu strain that apparently hits relatively young adults harder than old coots like me. That dangerous situation would be multiplied threefold if he were to unknowingly bring the virus home to his wife and two pre-teen kids.

May God help us all if this turns out to be another post-WWI type worldwide pandemic that many professional epidemiologists have been predicting for several years now. Since the world's population is several times greater than it was in 1918, another pandemic like that one would cause an absolutely catastrophic amount of deaths all around the globe. Of course the fanatical Greenies will say a flu pandemic is a good thing as long as only hundreds of millions of human beings die and no snail darters or other lower level life forms are affected by it.

[epow]

“Right now we don’t think the facts warrant more active testing or screening of passengers coming in from Mexico,” she said at a White House briefing

With astute leadership like that at the higher levels of the Magic Kenyan's administration how could anything possibly go wrong? Thanks to Secretary Napolitano's watchful oversight of my family's health I no longer feel any apprehension regarding the possibility of a swine flu pandemic that she has decided is not feasible for the US. (sarc alert)

[epow]

Mexico City has 20 to 30 million residents; around 100 have died. Heck, probably at least that many died from the drug lords. Lets not run for the hills just yet

Heck, in a city with 30 million inhabitants more than 100 people probably die every week from choking on a hot tamale.

But that doesn't mean we should retain our current unofficial policy of open borders to accommodate the Chamber of Commerce membership's insatiable appetite for low wage illegal labor, not to mention the rabid desire of the Democrat party to import and grant voting rights to millions of new Hispanic immigrants, the large majority of whom will become loyal Democrat voters as soon as they re registered.

[Vendome]

I love Santiago and snowboarding in Valle Nevado

[b4its2late]

You hit the nail on the head!

[IbJensen]

Point Montt was lovely.

[gandalftb]

There is very simple test. There are quite a number of hand held infra-red temperature detectors that are very accurate within several feet of detecting temperatures from 99 to 102 degrees.

You aim it at everyone coming in from Mexico, purely non-invasive testing. Everyone over 100 degrees gets throat/mouthy swabbed and cultured for the virus and contact information established.

Many would be unaware of mild temp increases, this would keep everyone warned and tracked and treated.

The Japanese are doing this right now.

Homeland Security and the CDC is way behind the ball on this.

[Scythian]

We'll have to take off and nuke it from space, it's the only way to be sure ....

[IbJensen]

Homeland Security and the CDC is way behind the ball on this.

These weasels (TSA=Tough Sh-t American) are adept at fondling your groin area and manipulating women passengers' breasts.

[Will88]

Other nations seem to be taking more precautions that the US. But come up with all the complications you care to. The reality is that US officials are rolling the dice every day, and betting that this is not an unusually deadly flu. Odds are it won't prove to be unusually deadly. But the time for precautions against a deadly flu is being frittered away.

More precautions could definitely have been taken sooner and few would have complained. But they still do not know how deadly this mix of swine, avian and human flu is. They don't know for sure why it seems deadlier in Mexico so far. They're gambling, and we'll have to wait and see...

[Jonny foreigner]

yes it looks like that other nations taking more precautions like the US. But to be fair if this would turn out to be the “real” deadly one we could allready consider us “dead” too right now in Europe (in this case maybe 1 or 2 weeks after the US). the real alarming (at least for me) is not that only the officials in the US look like as they do not care that much right now about this flu. the real alarming is that it shows worldwide that “we” are in no way somehow prepared for a “real” deadly disease. (not that i would believe that “our” governments would tell us the truth untill it´s to late). so i guess it´s just buisness as usuall. Do nothing and hope that it will just go away without doing to much harm to “us”. (the usuall calculation of governments in cases like this is, ok it will may kill 1000 -100.000 people worldwide) but in our countries we have access to all kind of medical care and vaccines so lets hope WE get away with a blue eye. explains why it looks like no one specially cares that they have 80 dead people in mexico right now.

[Twinkie]

I had read Dr. Douglass’s online newsletter about these illegals and the diseases some of them carry. It made me think twice about eating at most any restaurant where illegals are likely to be working.

For some reason, Bush seemed to have been biased in favor of illegals from Mexico especially. I wondered whether he might be biased to some degree because his brother is married to a Mexican woman and he views her as a sister. - Or maybe it’s the business lobby that needed the cheap labor that illegals provide that influenced him - or both.

I agree; they need to come in legally if they’re going to come in at all. I’ve noticed that the majority of Mexicans on Telemundo (Spanish speaking television) do not look like Mexicans, but more in appearance like Americans. The ones who come here to work are more in appearance like the ancient Aztecs are depicted as looking. (Just an observation, not a racist remark.)

I don’t think the politicians in Washington have much empathy for us great unwashed out here. It’s whatever floats their boats that they’re interested in.

[mojitojoe]

How ironic. They restrict travel here but our morons in DC REFUSE to close the borders. They would rather all American’s die than offend a Mexican. If it does spread here, I hope it strikes DC the fastest and hardest.

[Will88]

You can just take a look at the links (upper left) on the Drudge Report and get a good idea of how this is being viewed in different nations:

http://drudgereport.com/

[mojitojoe]

come on closing the boarder would have prevented nothing.
in times of global travel it´s only a matter of time when a disease arrives. the question is not if, it´s only when.
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You don’t know that. Close the borders, restrict travel to and from Mexico. Europe did it today but we have such wimps in DC, they would rather let it get out of control. Wait... hmmm maybe that’s what they are hoping for. Instant socialized medicine and martial law. Obummers dream.

[mojitojoe]

The European Union’s health commissioner urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to the United States or Mexico. . .

Is this supposed to be a bad thing?
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I think it’s a very smart thing.

[mojitojoe]

Difficult to explain that to the open borders loonies on this thread.
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Don’t include me in that group. I say close the boarders, NOW. I am vehemently against illegal immigration. They wonder why the unemployment is so high. Two reasons that contribute are cheap labor.....outsourcing and illegals.

[Jonny foreigner]

thanks for the link.
Just read a report from my government. Don´t panik, no need to stock up medicine.... we allready have stored enought vaccines against this virus for 50% “wow how impressive”
:-( of all people living in this country since years by our military.

[mojitojoe]

Do you support open borders?

Do you support amnesty for those who entered the nation dishonestly?

(I could ask more, but these will serve as a qualifier.)
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I know this question wasn’t for me but my answer is NO and NO! I guess I am missing what everyone is going off on you for. Seriously nobody can say with a straight face that Bush did anything to stop illegal immigration. I voted for Bush, I supported him but he sucked when it came to immigration. However Obummer will make Bush look like a hard liner when all is said and done.