Swine flu could force school closings, Obama says

We would rather close our schools than our boarders,

How about forcing a border closing?

We'll close schools, but not the border.

US AIRLINES are saying they are not charging fees for cancelling, but then when you rebook they charge you $150 per person. the same fee for cancelling.
The government should enforce airlines NOT to charge any fees for cancelling or reebooking since they are considering this situation an International matter.

Is this the same guy that said just two days ago that its not an emergency....Im close to fifty years old and the only thing that has closed my school was a snow day here and there....does this guy sleep at night, or does he plan on how he is going to downplay the next days events.....

Wow, a President who is actually reacting to a situation, before it becomes a situation... that is something very different from the past 8 years.

Closing the border wouldn't do any good my friends...it's already here.

Red and Trudy are you really that stupid? The virus is already here in the United States carried by US Citizens that were traveling. What will closing our borders accomplish at this point?

Breathe deeply please and get some oxygen to your brain because it appears your brain cells have stopped working.

Everyone, please calm down. Everyone needs to remain calm & cool. Yes this whole swine flu thing is & can be dangerous. But please do not create a panic. Yes, we all should be concerned but there is no need of panic. You all need to remember that this is also allergy season as well. Be concerned, wash your hands etc etc. But please just do things as you normally would and this will pass. The more people panic the more people are on edge. We have a better chance of being hit by a car (which I was a few years ago) than getting this stupid pig flu. So please just relax, take a deep breath & remain calm. Thank you.

“Every American should know that the federal government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus.”

Some of the most terrifing words I have ever read

Seriously, people--the virus has already crossed borders. Closing them would do nothing.

Closing the border now is like shutting the barn door after the horses have been stolen. It doesn't do any good for the cases that are already here. And nobody has ever had to wait at the border while they were tested for disease. And, it sounds to me like the flu is brought back by US Citizens who have traveled to another country.

And remember, don't call it Swine Flu. Wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of pigs across the land.

CLOSE THE BORDER!! (as if you needed the flu as a reason), don't panic the country by telling schools to close whenever one person sneezes.

Ok, guys so we should shut down all international air travel?

bla bla bla, border border border. now that the epidemic is already in the U.S..it's going to make it's rounds regardless!

closing schools is the best idea, considering the quickness in which sickness spreads with children.

What I really want to know is who these idiots are in the comments on all articles about the Swine Flu who keep suggesting we close our borders. Are you really suggesting cancelling thousands of flights, closing every road into the country and stopping ever ship that approaches our coasts? This is stupid for numerous reasons, not least because its impossible. What else? ... Oh yeah, its already here, and it was here before we even knew about the Swine Flu! It came back with U.S. citizens returning from vacations, not illegal immigrants sneaking across the border, so stop using the issue to promote your anti-foreigner agenda. Maybe we should adopt a law that prevents anyone from ever entering or leaving the country so that we never have a repeat of all of this. Who would ever want to travel to a foreign country anyway? If you do you must be a communist, right?

Y'all would love to close the borders, but not the airports ...
Real bright. I wish I could say I was surprised. Some folks can't even panic well.
Clue: there are a lot more business travelers on a day to day basis than vacationers. And a lot of personnel are needed to staff even a regional national airport, never mind on that serves international flights.

If school closings are contemplated, we should also be contemplating closing businesses. What good does it do kids to stay home from school and away from other kids, when their mom or dad could just as easily bring it home from work?

Not to cheapen the death of an infant...but an infant dying of the flu is actually NOT out of the ordinary AT ALL. 36,000 Americans die EVERY YEAR because of the flu...almost exclusively infants and old people or people with compromised immune systems. Frankly, if you are a doctor or a medically knowledgable person this is not big news. If college kids all over the US start dying then there is a problem, but so far we have 100 cases and 1 infant fatality. That is a 1% mortality rate and the victim was someone with a compromised immune system. So unless the virus mutates into a significantly more virulent form, this isn't any worse than the normal seasonal flu, and actually seems to be LESS prevelent. Can Anyonsay media hype?

The CDC claims that influenza is “a highly contagious virus that causes an average of 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. every year.”

...So, of course, Obama wants to drop $1.5bil in emergency funds and recommend closing schools because Mexico has a flu outbreak.

Another example of politicians and the media manipulating the public.

...It would be a shame to waste a good "crisis" when we can use it to accomplish so much." - Obama's Chief of Staff

Maybe someone at GM and Citibank will get the flu and they'll close down as well.

Don't call it swine flu. More aptly, let's call it the "donkey flu epidemic" courtesy of the Obama propaganda machine.

Go stock up on supplies... Cancel your vacations, don't go outside, and stay in your homes... If we don't, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!

ILiveAmongstIdiots You live with people like yourself then I guess! So answer this Oh smart and knowledgeable one. If you continue to let people fly in from Mexico to places that are not infected yet, would that not increase the instances of the out break infecting more? And why are other countries taking more precations at the airports than me are? oh great and wonderful OZ you call names, but I don't see any opinion from you.

The president is wasting this crisis.

Its obviously too late to shut down the border with Mexico because the virus is already here. But this is the ideal chance to shut the border down anyway under the guise of stopping the bug. The American people are too stupid to realize that it would just be a move to stop immigration (a much needed move). Shut it down when you have the chance now and it will make it hard for the left-wing nut jobs to reopen it.

Dont waste this!

Thousands of people die each winter from Influenza A and over 100 children each year. Yet 1 child in the US dies from swine flu and everyone freaks out? It's a tragedy for the child's family, but not sure the media-driven hysteria is warrented. Thanks Media outlets for doing a bang-up job of serving the public.

Please, people. If America closed the border NONE of us would be here. Your patriotism would play better in Germany, ca. 1936.

Bottom line is that kids are getting sick. People are dying. Turn off Rush Limbaugh/Ann Coulter/Air America, work together, keep our heads and try to figure out how to help these people, and avoid making this thing worse.

lipstick on a pig, lipstick on a pig, folks.

Flue viruses morph into different strands all the time. Will still should shut down the Mex border so a new type of flu virus does not cross.

You need to close the borders? tell us the real reason that the borders are more important than the people?
We deserve the best security and we are not getting this.
Who is responsible for not closing the borders?

Are we getting a little bit irrational about this, that the media is getting out of control.
Or that this is another way of getting everybody off the issues that are at hand.

Those with lower incomes and lower-authority jobs will suffer the most in this because they don't have the rights at work to stay out of work to supervise and keep their younger children home, especially if it's only for precautionary purposes. They wealthy can afford this much better and thus will likely have a lower sickness and death rate in the event of flu fatalities.

Border closing could (could) enhance our efforts to contain this and/or any other virus from spreading. Closing the borders wouldn't help anyone already here, but it could help contain those people who are sick and do not know it, from spreading it further. The Mexican government has already asked the US to do this temporarily. Closing the border (for a week or so, minus the need for essential commerce) could help contain this from spreading further. I for one, would prefer containment so that it isn't my child or yours, that is exposed to it unnecessarily.

I think we should locate all our parents/grand parents bomb shelters and hide in them till the deadly mexican chicken flu goes away.

commonsense you should be called (nonsense) closing the border means you come here the legal way not living here illegally, and jumping in front of the ones doing it correctly. And my point about the influenza is why do we do nothing to check if someone is infected coming from where it started being passive is not a good solution. We choose closing American schools as our solution? I'm not panicking I don't have kids in school any more it just does not make sense.

Hey Red,,how about learning how to spell correctly.

Closing the Mexican border shouldve been done a while ago. We should have soldiers lined up and willingly ready to blast away all that try to illegally enter.

Damage is done and Obama has continued to show why he was the wrong choice.
Not to mention his poor lack of judgement flying low over Manhattan.

Whatever though. Lets hope this flu disappears ASAP.

All of you people who are crying out about "closing the borders" are the same people who have wanted to cut Mexico (and Mexicans) out of the U.S. for ages now. Hey, why not build a giant fence, just like Bush and his buddies and all of you brain-dead supporters suggested? Stop hiding your blatant racism behind current events and come clean about your true motivations for wanting the border shut down, you cowards.

Ummm...closing the border would help to contain the spread of the virus by preventing people who are carrying it from entering the country. People entering the country legally are already being checked - who is checking the people entering the country illegally?

D'oh!

Here lets play health trivia....
1. How many people die in the US each year of the flu? Answer 62,000
2. How do you prevent the flu? Hint its Droplet precautions Answer Sneeze into your arm, cover your mouth when you cough, wash your hands, if you don't feel good stay home.
3. How many people have confirmed swine flu in the US? 85
4, How many have dies in the US? 1
Question to ask? Did this 1 death have any preexisting medical conditions?
Don't close the school the kids are already coming out stupid enough, how about the parent do something really new and take care of their children. Don't send them to school if they have a fever, or are not feeling well, take a day off and take care of your child. Its not the governments job to take care of us..

Media induced President......where's the podium!!!! Need to make a speech....where's the press? Say something ....say anything!!!!

Why close the boarders...that would make too much sense. Don't want to piss-off the illegals. Afterall, they're gonna be naturalized citizens soon.

It's socialism....spread the wealth....everybody gets some...including the swine flu.

Don't even try to argue with these ignorant fools. They are either bigots that don't want to alter their opinion, or they really have no clue as to why this call to "omg close the boarder!" is so ridiculous. There is this woman at the Herald blaming the two kids in Lowell for bringing the plague here and that anyone traveling here should be interred until we know they are clean.

Do you people have ANY CLUE how many people fly in and out of the US and through Mexico? How much legitimate and necessary traffic passes through between the US and Mexico every day? This whole immigration thing is absurd, and a convenient way for xenophobes to scapegoat Mexicans.

People die at higher rates in other countries because their nationalized healthcare is a joke. That's why they come here when they're really sick, if they can figure out how to get in....

I'm just waiting for the other "shoe to drop" when Obama says this is another reason why we need to address his nationalized healthcare objectives. "Don't waste a crisis", -Rom Emanuel

It's difficult to extract the statistics as most are unfavourable to the public health authority arguments. Still, like the price of oil reaching a more realistic level last year (the price more inclusive of the cost of militarizing its acquisition), there could be a good effect: those in the medical establishment giving advice about washing our hands might actually take this on themselves. And Americans, a generally filthy and socially uncaring lot, might finally get with the program and exercise some simple common sense.

The fact that the latter statements are so true further suggests that the public health profession, primarily one of education, has failed. It has morphed instead into a mouthpiece for convenience prophylaxis.

In my business, electronics, we need not post signs (complete with illustrations) suggesting that it might be a bad thing to grasp a soldering iron (350 degrees C) by the "business end". Yet, hospitals find it necessary to keep physicians and other "highly trained" staff reminded of the basics. How can we not view this as rather pathetic?

Although caution is certainly worthy for a suspected and serious virus which would likely bring down those already immune compromised and others whose immune systems have been tinkered with, it may be instructive to note the most recently available stats (from CDC, 2001), to wit:

63,729 deaths from influenza virus per year, 5,310 per month, 1,225 per week, 174 per day, 7 per hour

The CDC, with disregard for facts that may buffer what they're promoting, claim 30,000+ deaths per year directly from influenza. The above statistic is higher, as is CDC's public claim, which is an egregious disregard for the facts.

So what's happening?

The CDC's own published National Vital Statistics reporting shows death directly attributable to influenza in the order of less than 2,000 per year. Their public statements are far different. One must wonder about the motive.

What the CDC apparently does is to clump into the "influenza" mortality statistic those already immune-compromised who succumb to related complications such as improperly diagnosed/treated pneumonia. They don't die from flu. They die from stuff that the flu further enables by weakening an already battered natural immunity.

The CDC's statistic is also a 2-edged sword. They use it to claim that now's the time to get a flu shot. Yet they claim that a majority of the population is vaccinated and the vaccine works. Eh?

Although the deaths from the current strain are of concern, the CDC would give its already pathetic credibility a (pun) boost if it provided some facts around the current virus, such as overall health status of the infected person; course and efficacy of treatment; etc. Otherwise, the public is left imagining that this bug will strike down the perfectly healthy with no hope of recovery, which is clearly a load of bull.

With all the panic over swine flu, I can't wait to see how bad things are when the extraterrestrials invade and start taking humans as slaves - CLOSE THE GALAXY!!!

The boarders will not close, and 20 million illegal immigrants will be granted Amnesty and have a (D) next to their names by the 2012 election. Between now and 2012 B.O will have lost at least 20 million if not more supporters. Granting Amnesty is the only shot Obama will have of getting re-elected.