Sheriff Joe Sez...PANIC!!!1!!!11!1!!

Not content to freak people out with low flying jets, the Obama administration has now decided to go to eleventy on "swine" flu. Fortunately no one pays attention to Biden.

Vice president Joe Biden said today he would tell his family members not to use subways in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 11 states and forced school closures amid confirmation of the first U.S. death.

"I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said when asked whether he would advise family members to use public transportation.

Biden made his comments during a brief interview on NBC's "Today" show during an interview with Matt Lauer.

"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. "

Meanwhile back in the real world...it turns out this strain of flu may not be all that bad.

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

Obviously this is a cause for concern but there really doesn't seem to cause for flipping out. It's a fine line for public officials to walk in these cases and not surprisingly Joe Biden seems to have failed to walk it.

posted by DrewM. at 10:47 AM

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