The swine flu continues what the Obama administration, world health officials and state-level functionaries consider its global asault. Travel advisories warn against travel to and from Mexico as governments worldwide scramble to develop and implement barriers against the importation of the virus. In the United States, the State Department, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Homeland Security plan to issue a warning against “non-essential” travel to Mexico. For Mexico, a country that relies so heavily on tourism for the strength of its economy, this outbreak of the mutated flu (assigned the nomenclature H1N1) is as devastating economically as it is physically.

The airlines are responding to the mushrooming fear of contracting the disease, as well, by offering refunds to customers who have purchased tickets for travel to Mexico. And for those tourists whose itineraries include trips to or through Mexico, other segments of the travel industry, such as discount travel giant Expedia, are waiving the cancellation fees they usually charge. This anxiety married to the governmental warnings against travel to Mexico is particularly harmful to an industry already suffering from a recession-fueled downturn.

In America, apprehension is intensifying. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City announced that there were at least 45 and perhaps as many as 100 cases of swine flu at one high school in Queens. In response, President Barack Obama issued a statement asserting that while stories such as these are legitimate causes for “concern and a heightened state of alert,” there was, he added, “no cause for alarm.”

The alarms are being sounded, however, in diverse corners of the world as daily reports of the diagnoses of new cases are reported. In recent days there has come word of outbreaks in Europe, Asia, and several states in the U.S., including cases in Kansas and Ohio. While no deaths have been reported outside of Mexico, there is genuine concern that until an effective vaccine is developed and distributed throughout the world, everyday will bring news of additional cases in additional places.

In response to the mounting domestic and global hysteria, acting director of the CDC, Dr. Richard Besser, held a news briefing where he reckoned that reports of the disease would rise rapidly as testing and surveillance increased. Furthermore, he predicted that the “spectrum of the disease would expand.” Such dire warnings are aimed at improving the diligence with which people avoid exposure to a potentially fatal disease whose rapid growth and border-busting dissemination seem, for the moment, unstoppable.

U.S. lawmakers also plan to get in on the action, promising to examine several aspects of the situation this week in Senate hearings. But Congressman Ron Paul may have a more sensible approach than a governmental knee-jerk response in his timely video.

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danwhitehead1 said:

	Short memories What ever happened to that "bird flu" that was going to kill everybody? I'll listen to and believe Ron Paul long before I'll listen to and believe some scare-mongering fedgov agent.
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May 01, 2009
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Loa said:

Sounds about right Sounds about right to me. Seems to me that this is a clever attempt to keep people occupied. Perhaps to keep the Mexican people busy as to deter a revolution? Maybe a way to gain more control over the people? To enforce vaccines? Perhaps a way of testing how people respond in a crisis situation? Or...maybe this is in preparation for something bigger to come in the future. Whatever it is, it isnt good!

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May 01, 2009
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