Reuters: Governments around the world moved to contain the spread of a possible flu pandemic on Monday, as a virus that has killed 103 people in Mexico spread to the United States and may have reached as far as New Zealand.
Fearing another setback for the fragile world economy, markets reacted nervously to the swine flu outbreak, which has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to activate its 24-hour "war room" command center.
EU health chief: Don’t travel to Mexico or U.S.
Warning comes as Spain reports first confirmed case of swine flu in Europe http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30431245/
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.
On arriving in Luxembourg, Vassiliou advised Europeans to reassess their travel plans.
She told reporters “they should avoid traveling to Mexico or the United States of America unless it is very urgent for them.”
EU foreign ministers discussed the outbreak of swine flu on Monday and the EU health ministers were holding an emergency meeting on the subject Thursday.
Guan Yi, a virology professor at the University of Hong Kong who helped to fight SARS and bird flu, said a pandemic looked inevitable. “I think the spread of this virus in humans cannot possibly be contained within a short time… there are already cases in almost every region. The picture is changing every moment… “We are counting down to a pandemic.”
Dr.M.L.KingfishApril 27th, 2009 - 9:51 am
has anyone else noticed that Hillary was in Mexico just prior to the outbreak of the swine flu?
be careful of buying pot from or selling guns to a coughing mexican.
Far Reich Wing WackosApril 27th, 2009 - 10:10 am
I Find it incredibly funny how Texas Governor Perry has done a complete 180 on succession by begging Washington for it’s help now when it’s convenient like the rest of you right wing nut-jobs on this hate filled site!
For all you sour grape moron losers somehow claiming it’s the Obama administration’s fault for not shutting down the Mexican border and on and on with your complete idiotic rhetoric in the past posts suggesting to quarantine Mexico’s boarder is ludicrous at best. Do you think no one else is traveling from Mexico to Canada, Europe, Asia, or anywhere else in the world, and then traveling from there to the U.S? I mean gee whiz, wasn’t it the Bush’s and half the Republican party that had illegal Mexicans as maids and gardeners during the last eight year holocaust? How we conveniently forget, huh?
President Obamas approval ratings are edging at an all time high of nearly 70% with 25% of Rethugs included in their approval! Even the rest of the world sees hope now that you wackos are no longer in power to frig things up even more, LOL! Bad news for you irrelevant dumb a$$e$ I’d say!
I’ve never seen a republican governor rewrite history this quickly. If you think Perry didn’t say “secede,†then you’ve lost it. (Granted, I think it was more like “suckseed,†but we won’t go there.)
Texas and the rest of you irrelevant redneck, bible thumping, money draining, Red State Party of “NO” losers can get bent! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
Oh, by the way . . . before you go . . .
Weâ€re closing Fort Hood and Fort Bliss and Fort Sam Houston and Brooks City-Base and Dyess Air Force Base and Goodfellow Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base and Laughlin Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base and Sheppard Air Force Base, and taking all the tanks and airplanes and soldiers and airmen away. Oh wait †thereâ€s also that Coast Guard base in Galveston, and three Navy bases. And we forgot about the big F-16 plant in Fort Worth †it belongs to the US government, you see.
NASA, bye bye.
And when the Corps of Engineers moves out youâ€ll have run the flood control works on the Trinity River yourself, but you can probably figure that out before it floods again.
Border guards. Gone
And you can do whatever you want with all the Mexicans that pick all the vegetables in Zavala County, cuz thatâ€ll be your only food source after the cattle eat all the scrub grass. And weâ€re keeping the off-shore oil, because how you going to stop us? With your Navy? Oh, thatâ€s right, you donâ€t have one! Too bad!
Bye-bye, Tejas and the rest of you Far right wing wacko Neo-cons! Let the 21st Century pass you by! Trust me, no one will miss you at all!
And The Far-Reich Wing Rethuglican’t Hypocrisy Comedy Parade Continues………
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The State Department plans to issue a travel warning later on Monday urging Americans to avoid all “nonessential” travel to Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu, a U.S. official said.
Swine flu has killed 103 people in Mexico and has spread to the United States. Spain has reported one case of the virus, the first to be confirmed in Europe.
“There will be a travel warning urging Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico because of the swine flu,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be named as the warning has not yet been announced.
Dave, TnApril 27th, 2009 - 10:26 am
IF this gets bad it probably won’t be until next fall so people still have time to prepare to hunger down. Of course if the federal government handles a pandemic outbreak of swine flu the same way they’ve dealt with the financial melt down It won’t matter if you do everything right to prepare. They’ll just take it all away and give it to New York, and of course the New York media will lie about what’s happening.
Jump you F#$kers!! LMAO
AFP – The top US disease control official rejected as unwarranted Monday an EU warning that appeared to call on Europeans to avoid travel to the United States and Mexico due to the swine flu outbreak.
“At this point, I would not put out a travel restriction or recommendation against coming to the United States,” said Richard Besser, acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Besser was responding to a statement earlier Monday by EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou recommending that Europeans avoid unnecessary travel to areas hit by the swine flu outbreak.
“Personally, I would try to avoid non-essential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the center of the cluster,” she said.
Vassiliou did not specifically mention the United States, but the swine flu outbreak has been centered in Mexico and has caused 20 confirmed cases across the border in the United States, the second hardest-hit country so far.
She said the precaution was necessary “in order to minimize the personal risk and to reduce of the potential risk to spread the infection to other people,” she added.
Russia will inspect all planes coming from north and south America for swine flu starting Monday, the country’s chief medical official said, quoted by news agencies.
“From today all flights coming from the American continent will be inspected,” said the official, Gennady Onishchenko, noting that suspected cases of the virus had been identified in Canada and Brazil.
The announcement came as health authorities worldwide attempted to limit the spread of the potential deadly virus after it killed over 100 people in Mexico.
“These conditions are being imposed to minimize the possibility of the virus’ entry into our country,” Onishchenko said.
He added that regional authorities in Russia had been ordered to monitor all suspected cases of swine flu and conduct tests for the virus.
On Sunday Russia banned meat imports from Mexico, several US states and nine Latin American nations in a bid to contain the virus, which has appeared in the United States and Canada and is feared to have spread as far as New Zealand.
USATODAY – The World Health Organization now says there are 40 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States and that it is “very concerned” about the spread of the disease, the Associated Press reports. The figures have been confirmed by the U.S. Government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the AP says. WHO also reports that it has now begun work on a swine flu vaccine.
Here’s some more fat for you Right Wing Wacko Rethugs to chew on while you blame everyone in the world except yourselves and your irrelevant political party….
Remember way back in the day, President Obama delivered his Not Really The State Of The Union address, and the GOP trotted out Future Of The Republican Party Supra-Genius Bobbly Jindal to provide a rebuttal? Well, we all had some laughs, didn’t we? Mainly because Jindal was all: “They want to spend stimulus money on volcano monitoring?
Well, as it turns out, volcano monitoring wasn’t the only worthwhile public safety program that was deemed extravagant in the stimulus package, funding for pandemic preparation was axed as well. And playing a critical role other than the whole Republican Senate, was Susan Collins — for whom the necessity of obtaining her vote is in inverse proportion to the intelligence she shows in policy making:
Famously, Maine Senator Collins, the supposedly moderate Republican who demanded cuts in health care spending in exchange for her support of a watered-down version of the stimulus, fumed about the pandemic funding: “Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill No, we should not.”
Even now, Collins continues to use her official website to highlight the fact that she led the fight to strip the pandemic preparedness money out of the Senate’s version of the stimulus measure.
Naturally, it’s tough to keep an economy stimulated if productivity gets diminished by a pandemic. And, hey, it turns out that the lack of a stable and well-funded public health infrastructure may not be so good for economic recovery as a whole:
On Monday, the question began to be answered, as Associated Press reported — under the headline: “World Markets Struck By Swine Flu Fears” — that: “World stock markets fell Monday as investors worried that a deadly outbreak of swine flu in Mexico could go global and derail any global economic recovery.”
Before U.S. markets opened, the Wall Street Journal reported: “U.S. stock futures fell sharply Monday as the outbreak of deadly swine flu stoked fears that a possible recovery in the global economy could be derailed.”
All of this is playing out at a time when HHS nominee sits on the sidelines, her nomination held up at the behest of pro-life organizations who want to paint her as the “Abortion Queen.” The hold up is pointless – merely delaying the inevitable for “another week.” Maybe the swine flu would be good enough to wait!
Do you think this sort of ideology will go over big in the next round of elections when it comes to the Reluglican’ts irresponsibility concerning these types of issues? We will probably end up paying a lot more for the lack of leadership in the Republican Party trying to ward off this flu, and many more viruses to come!
Gotta love those Rethugs and their ability to invest in the well being of our own country! Snicker, snicker….
And The Far-Reich Wing Bent on Destroying This Country Rethuglican’t Hypocrisy Comedy Parade Continues……..Only NOW their actions, or lack there of, are becoming more serious than comic!
OtherApril 27th, 2009 - 2:41 pm
If anything happens it will be in a month or so. Summers tend to slow or kill off flu epidemics.
ANOTHER SERIOUS CRISIS?April 27th, 2009 - 3:47 pm
Is this ANOTHER SERIOUS CRISIS that SOMEBODY will be sure to NOT WASTE??
Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, recently said: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
EU health chief: Don’t travel to Mexico or U.S.
Warning comes as Spain reports first confirmed case of swine flu in Europe
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30431245/
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.
On arriving in Luxembourg, Vassiliou advised Europeans to reassess their travel plans.
She told reporters “they should avoid traveling to Mexico or the United States of America unless it is very urgent for them.”
EU foreign ministers discussed the outbreak of swine flu on Monday and the EU health ministers were holding an emergency meeting on the subject Thursday.