White House: Obama not exposed to swine flu

It was one of the stranger sidelights of today's tempest of coverage over the increasingly serious swine flu outbreak:

Did President Obama get exposed to the deadly strain when he shook hands with a Mexican official earlier this month?

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was peppered with questions this afternoon about Obama's contact on April 16 with the official, who fell ill and died soon afterwards.

Gibbs said that the president's doctors say that there's nothing to be worried about -- that Obama has exhibited no symptoms -- and that it's not confirmed that the Mexican official actually died from swine flu.

"Having talked to the doctors directly about this, the president's health was never in danger. The president, nor anybody that I know of traveling with him in either a governmental or press capacity, has shown any symptoms that would denote cause for any concern," said Gibbs, who did say that the White House was not warned about the outbreak before the visit, a stop on the way to the Summit of the Americas.

To try to quelll the speculation once and for all, the White House ended up issuing a statement late this afternoon from the Mexican embassy saying that the official did not die of swine flu.

"Mr. Felipe Solís, director of Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum died on April 23rd, a week after he welcomed Presidents Obama and Calderón at the Museum. He died of complications of a preexisting condition and not of swine flu,” said embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday.

The White House also took the unusual step of issuing a Q&A on the situation. It's below:

1. Was Felipe Solis the President’s tour guide in Mexico city, and did he die of swine flu?

No .The Mexican embassy has issued a statement clarifying that Mr. Solis’s death was not caused by swine flu.

Statement from Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy to the United States of America:

"Mr. Felipe Solís, Director of Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum died on April 23rd, a week after he welcomed Presidents Obama and Calderón
at the Museum. He died of complications of a preexisting condition and not of swine flu.”

2. Did Mexican authorities notify US officials about the swine flu issue in advance of the President’s visit?

No they did not, but we have no reason to believe they withheld any information they had at the time. White House Medical Unit staff on the ground asked Mexican health officials and US embassy medical staff about any concerns regarding infectious disease, and were informed that there were none.

3. When did the US learn about the swine flu situation in Mexico?

As John Brennan of the Homeland Security Council indicated in this afternoon’s briefing, we did not learn about the swine flu cases in Mexico until late last week.

From this afternoon’s briefing at DHS:

QUESTION: Can you tell us, Madam Secretary -- and perhaps Mr. Brennan, as well -- a little bit about when the United States government first became sort of fully aware of, you know, these events in Mexico and how you began to come up with your response for them? And then what about today brought on the travel alert? What changed today to bring on the travel alert?

NAPOLITANO: Sure.

John, do you want to -- OK.

BRENNAN: The first instances of the influenza down in -- in Mexico were the end of last week. In terms of confirmation, it was like Thursday or Friday of last week.

So the Mexican health authorities knew they had a health issue. And, therefore, they sent the samples to both the Canadian labs, as well as to the CDC. And so the confirmation that it was swine flu was last week.

But to date, at least from my perspective, the Mexican authorities have been exceptionally cooperative and forthcoming. Both Secretary Napolitano and I have spoken to the Mexican ambassador. I think there's been very strong cooperation.