Swine Flu Worries Could Lead to Subway Closings
By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Now that the World Health Organization has raised its swine flu warning to the next-to-highest level, talk of shutting down city subways systems, like Washington's Metro, has begun among congressional staffers and federal officials involved in transportation. Sources tell Whispers that what started simply as speculative "buzz" yesterday has turned into serious discussions of the implications of shuttering major transportation systems until the crisis is over.
"We're talking about shutting down major transportation systems. Metro has come up," says a congressional source involved in federal transportation issues. He said, however, that there are no plans to call for subway, airline, or Amtrak closures. "It's just the early talk about how we can prevent this from spreading," said the source.
Still, talk about closing Metro has some on Capitol Hill asking whether Congress or possibly the whole federal government would have to close as a result. "The questions are like, 'How will people get to work' and 'Will they want to work around people with the flu?' The health experts are telling people to stay home if they have the flu, but we just don't do that here. We go to work if we feel good enough," said a Hill aide.
Tags: transportation | Washington, DC | public health | swine flu
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Reader Comments
Ed H of TX
Its obvious from your faulty logic and irrational conclusions that you have no scientific training at all and that your moronic so called "micro-biologists" don't have a clue what they are saying. Please, leave it to the experts at CDC or WHO. Certainly don't need any racist inflamatory remarks from the peanut gallery.
The Flu
The US imported a very sick tot from Mexico with the flu. Since he has since died, Texas can claim a death from the new flu virus.
I call this the Mexican flu because it is a mixture of the avian, swine & human flu virus. Several old acquaintances involved with micro biology have told me the flu could be a mutated version of the bird flu. Whatever the source one can expect the Mexican government to point the finger at the gringos to the north. Some of the micro biologists have expressed concern that this new virus could continue to mutate and further acclimate itself to the human immune system. From their view it appears to have the ability (though none has been proven) to bore inside & infect a cell & remain dormant until capable of overcoming the immune system, then bursting out. To date it looks like a garden variety flu as far as symptoms & mortality rates are concerned, but has the potential of being far more if it continues to mutate.
However, I am told it can infect pigs, birds or humans and therefore "the Mexican Flu" is the proper name for it.
Ed
WHAT ABOUT SCHOOLS
Schools should be closed to stop the speard of the swine virus intill under controll to help protect our children
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