Swine Flu: Napolitano Says Border Tightening Not Necessary

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the policy of passive surveillance for swine flu at U.S. airports and land ports "makes sense" and sterner steps are not yet necessary.

Napolitano also said the Obama administration wouldn't wait for a World Health Organization declaration of a pandemic to deliver a pandemic-like response.

The secretary, who has taken a lead role in the administration's response to the flu breakout, went on morning news shows to assure the American public that the government was ready and able to respond to any widening health threat.

"We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days," she acknowledged on NBC's "Today" show. Noting that the WHO has moved the pandemic alert status to Level 4 of a 6-step process, the secretary also said: "We're prepared as if there were a pandemic. We're not waiting" for a WHO declaration.

Some 50 people have been infected in this country so far, but there have been no reports of deaths, in contrast to neighboring Mexico, where approximately 50 deaths have been reported.

In one interview, Napolitano was asked point-blank if the monitoring that the U.S. is now conducting at entry points in the country is sufficient. "We think that what we're doing now at the land ports and the airports makes sense," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Asked if more draconian measures are under consideration, Napolitano said on NBC: "That's something that can be considered, but you have to look at what the costs are. We literally have thousands of trucks and commerce that cross that border ... That would be a very, very heavy cost for what epidemiologists tells us would be marginal" in terms of containing the virus.

Napolitano also was asked if the federal Department of Health and Human Services is sufficiently prepared to respond to the crisis, given that its secretary-designate, Kathleen Sebelius, was still awaiting Senate confirmation and there are several high-level vacancies there.

"Yes, absolutely," she said. "And we had a homeland security council meeting last night with many departments of the federal government. ... So there's a very broad, multi-agency federal response going on."

Napolitano also said that federal efforts to get antivirus medications to the states "is under way and is working."

Comments

[jerrypl]

Anyone attempting to cross the US border on foot from Mexico infected with Swine Flu will die from heat exposure and dehydration. To spend money to tighten the border because of this infection is ridiculous. An airline passenger, or auto passenger, or getting sneezed on are more likely sources of exposure.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[Montreaux1991]

Not even that, to do it now is equivalent to shutting the barn 2 days after the horse got out.

The borders should have been under tighter scrutiny YEARS ago.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

The border with Canada is far more undefeded and far more likely as well as a history of terrorists trying to cross over in the US.

[TJCole]

Scientifically unsound, disingenuous and puts commerce over the life and well being of millions of Americans...

If she's right well then fine and we get lucky, but if she's wrong people die possibly in droves...she has a poor sense of public safety....

Never liked her selection...too political and a lawyer, this should be a job for an ex retired admiral or general or someone else with experience in logistics, not law.....same as Chertoff was...

[humanunit]

We don't need yet another gutless response

[Academic]

You disappoint me Janet. Go ahead and tighten them securely; permanently shut with the express purpose of keeping your citizens in, like the DDR did, and ensuring they stayed put; then the rest of the world could breathe easier, would be spared the insufferable presence of your arrogant and dim-witted countrymen and women and, who knows, hopefully your government as well from trampling all over them and meddling unwarrantedly in their affairs. Sounds a brilliant idea to me, closing the US borders forever. Then we’ll all see how little you’re missed, if missed at all!

Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore.

[lynnn]

She probably has way more information on this than you do.

[sdskelton03]

Is Swine Flu really as big a threat as pro-lifers, those who oppose immigration and returning war veterans?

[roshni]

Pro-lifers are a bigger threat than almost everyone.

[gbrooks]

You're right, we don't need to tighten the borders because of swine flu. We need to tighten them because our national defense is at risk.

[destruct1]

Nah...i say open them up to any and all who want in...starting with the drug lords. Another grade a pick there bobo.

[lynnn]

Yeap go ahead and ignore science.

[tiotom77]

It's too late anyway....Reaction time was necessary. Now we'll just let it play out.

[lynnn]

Too late bc it started the mutations in the U.S.

[mollyjackson]

OBAMA: We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United States, and this is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it's not a cause for alarm. I'm getting regular updates on the situation from the responsible agencies....

I look at Obama, he strikes me as a good time, fairly lazy individual, not a deep thinker but a true ideologue, and he soaked up all the stuff that he's been exposed to. Most of this stuff that he's doing was predicted.

[hollybork]

If you look at Obama and see a lazy individual, a superficial thinker and ideologue, I don't know why. No one who knows him well or has worked or attended school with him would agree with your intuition, Molly. Neither do the facts of his achievement suggest a lazy individual. Examine what it is that makes you think he is lazy and see if you have a frame of reference that needs to be challenged.
I suspect you are projecting onto him your own qualities.

[lynnn]

Uhm the thing is WE gave it TO Mexico that's the issue. Bush's CDC kept it under wraps. They've known about it since 2007.

[-0013]

BS

[NoahVail]

"Demoloons are giving us tax cheats and incompetents who can not even run a small farming state like Kansas. "

I think Molly may be "deloosional", or at least a right wing ideologue.

[gbrooks]

Lazy?

Like the guy or not, he's hardly lazy.

Remember Bush? He took so many vacations that it became a joke.

[roshni]

Lazy? You are full of it.

[lynnn]

INFLUENZA >> SWINE INFLUENZA >> NEWS >>

Printable Page
CDC reports swine flu virus in Texas patient

Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer
Nov 24, 2008 (CIDRAP) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in its latest update on the nation's seasonal influenza activity, reported on a person who was infected with a swine influenza virus following several exposures to pigs, including a sick one.

The CDC said the patient was infected with a swine influenza A/H1N1 virus. Although human infections with swine flu viruses are uncommon, many years bring reports of isolated cases, the report said.

[lynnn]

Iowa State Discovery of Avian/Swine Hybrid flu in 2007
Notice the "Reason for Public Health Concern"
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/biosecurity/ag-biosec/news/dec2007swine.html

This probably started here.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/swineflu/index.html

Why close our borders if we've had it here since Nov of last yr (at the very least if not sooner).

[rwext]

she is blaming the vets .

[lynnn]

There's been cases here since Nov. of 2008....

[jordan3189]

She not blaming the canadians again, is she?

[zeotrope]

She was in Canada a few days ago telling lies about terrorist coming from Canada and telling us she was going to tighten up the border. So yes she is.

[lynnn]

This things been floating around the U.S. before the outbreak in Mexico. The hybrid was first seen in Missouri, w/a high rate of mutation, and it appeared that it already could go from mammal to mammal.

[WilliamL]

could not hurt for swine and other reasons.