Posted on 04/30/2009 3:02:38 AM PDT by reaganaut1
“Containment is no longer a feasible option,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda, deputy director general of the World Health Organization, announced Monday night in Geneva after a meeting of the agency’s emergency committee on the spreading swine flu virus. “The world should focus on mitigation. We recommend not closing borders or restricting travel.”
Many countries are still ignoring that advice. The globe is a confusing welter of bans, advisories and alerts on some pork and some people.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was heavily pressed in Congressional hearings to ignore the advice and close the border with Mexico. She defended her decision not to do so, saying it “would be a very, very heavy cost for what epidemiologists tell us would be marginal benefit.”
President Obama defended it too, telling a reporter that it would be “akin to closing the barn door after the horse is out.”
Experts on the global movement of flu say Dr. Fukuda, Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Obama are right. The world, they say, must bow to the inevitable: closing borders would not only fail to stop the virus, but would also cause economic collapse and possibly add to the death rate.
“But it’s wrong to think we’re throwing up our hands and saying ‘Let ’er rip and let’s hope for the best,’ ” said Dr. Martin S. Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “This has all been in the national pandemic flu plan since 2007.”
Closing borders is dangerous because many goods needed in a pandemic are made abroad, said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Got a haircut last nite. The stylist thought you got swine flu by eating pork. There are some remarkable dimbulbs out there.
Ironically, this Dr. Fukuda is now a big joke, in all places, his native JAPAN.
lol.. my boss said stay away from the pork.
Mexico travelers planning to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the US
KHOU Houston ^ | 4-29-09 | Angela Korcherga
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2241016/posts
“The world should focus on mitigation. We recommend not closing borders or restricting travel.”
Mitigate: To lower, to reduce the amount of... To make less in intensity.
The Dr is just more political double speak.
Don't hurt the tourist trade, but don't spread the virus.
It appears that empty suits are not only limited to the UN, Washington DC, but the WHO as well.
The elite say we must have open borders at any cost.
I might be in the minority here, but he is probably largely correct.
A large segment of the worlds populations is to mobile, and that mobility to fast, to realistically contain outbreaks of flu epidemics et-al by closing borders.
Not to say it should not be done at all, but its somewhat like the analogy of closing the barn doors after the horses got out.
The barn door should have been shut years ago. The horse might be out, but how about we close the door before the coyotes get in and kill the rest of our livestock.
That's why I go to a barber instead of a stylist.
On a different note, I watched a press conference with Janet Napolitano the other day and in a 35 second answer to a question, she said ah or um 21 times. Not only is she hard to look at but hard to listen to also.
Cinco de Mayo has NOTHING to do with America. It was when Mexicans fought the French in Mexico. Why the heck are they flocking over here? Illegals should be running for the border the other direction and we should shut the door behind them.
Gotta build a barn first.
Okay, I am just going to toss out something here to think about..........
The common cold virus is already “out”. It’s in all countries, right. So using the same strategy as allowing open borders, let’s see how that would work out in a few scenarios. Let’s say that here in the USA there were the usual number of people showing symptoms of the common cold. Most people are managing to not get it because they try to stay away from people infected and normally can manage to do so. Now let’s say that a hugely unproportionate number of Mexicans had a cold and we let them all come pouring into town to celebrate Cinco de mayo with their relatives already here. They all bring their cold germs and now what is the average American’s chance of catching the illness. Well it seems to me the chances just increased HUGELY!
So, yes, the horse is already out of the barn, but do we have to let a million more horses out to join him and raise our chances of being infected?
Just asking....
Yes, it would be a hard decision, with dire political consequences, but the right thing now is to nuke all cities/towns/villages/states/countries where this vile pestilence has emerged. It’s for the good of the many, after all.
“The stylist thought you got swine flu by eating pork.”
I don’t think hairstylists are known for their IQ.
Right, keep moving, traveling. Yes, that won't spread anything. Maybe they think we're all going to get it anyway, so why hurt the bottom line or cause people to worry...
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