President Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, addressed the rising concern of swine flu last week. at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 29, 2009. "This is obviously a serious situation" and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said. Biden later said he advised his family to avoid airplanes and subways, "anywhere in confined places."
Hours after President Obama tried to calm swine flu fears on national TV last week, Vice President Joe Biden undermined those efforts by saying he’s advising his family to avoid airplanes and subways, “anywhere in confined places.”
That is not official government policy, and Biden tried to backtrack. But his flub unleashed fresh questions about risk in an age of pandemics and terrorism.
What’s the line between caution and fear? And is the presence of 24-hour media, a more mobile population, government that has ramped up crisis response, and a security industry that has grown in an age of terrorism making risk more front and center in people’s lives?
People all over the globe are traveling more, making it harder to control outbreaks, said Timothy A. Dimoff, a security and risk expert. But he also said the media and his own industry have contributed to a higher awareness of risk – to good and bad effect.
“The media today, you know, can report instantly, hour by hour, minute by minute, and spread it in an international fashion in a matter of seconds,” said Dimoff, founder and president of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, of Akron, Ohio.
“You go back to ’68 and even before that and we didn’t have the ability to update everyone on every single aspect and every single pandemic case breaking out. … The media will and does have the potential to make it seem bigger than it is.”
In 1968, roughly 35,000 people died in the last flu pandemic in this country, fewer than the number who died in car accidents.
Dimoff, who helped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan for pandemic responses in Ohio, is advising people not to travel to Mexico and urging visitors to return home in case borders are closed. Dimoff said he would avoid areas in the United States where cases have been reported.
People should closely monitor loved ones’ health, he said, and seek medical care at the first sign of symptoms.
But Dimoff said he would still get on an airplane. He would pay attention to advisories from the government, which he said has worked hard in the last five years to prepare for a pandemic.
“We should be concerned, be on the lookout for it, take some extra precautions, but it is not a rapidly developing domino pandemic that is getting out of hand,” Dimoff said.
Last week, Obama said the swine flu threat “is a cause for deep concern, but not panic” that could be mitigated by a government that responds “intelligently, systematically, based on science and what public health officials have to say.”
He calmly urged Americans to take practical precautions, like washing their hands frequently and covering mouths and noses when they sneezed.
But the following morning, Biden was anything but calming when he told the NBC “Today” show: “I would tell members of my family – and I have – I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now.”
“When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft,” Biden said.
His spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, tried to backtrack, saying Biden meant to repeat administration policy that people should avoid “unnecessary travel” to Mexico. But Biden clearly was referring to broader cautions than that, and a travel industry already piqued at Obama for his attacks on lavish business travel by CEOs quickly responded.
James C. May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association of America, called Biden’s comments “extremely disappointing.”
“The airlines have been working daily with government agencies, none of whom suggest people avoid air travel, unless they are not feeling well,” May said. “The fact is that the air onboard a commercial aircraft is cleaner than in most public buildings.”
Chuck Raasch is political editor for Gannett News Service. E-mail: craasch@gns.gannett.com.
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