Vice President Joe Biden has caused somewhat of a public stir this morning when he announced that on NBC’s “Today” show that “neither he nor his family should be traveling in “confined spaces” like airplanes or subways where a cough or a sneeze by a person infected with swine flu could spread the illness.” (NYT Caucus)
According to NYT’s Editor Kate Phillips, “His suggestions represent a departure from the rather-ordinary advice offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and even the president himself. At his news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Obama talked about hand-washing and covering your mouth when coughing.” Now, I’m all for playing it safe. But I feel that the Vice President’s remarks here were a little extreme. Advising people in a major city to avoid planes and the subway seems downright foolish and seems to raise too much alarm where it isn’t needed. Not denying the seriousness of the situation, the last thing we need is panic, and remarks by someone as respected as the Vice President very easily could have this affect. Suddenly people will stop going to work on account that the Vice President advised not taking the subway (which many people in cities rely on as sole transportation.) Good intentions, just badly put, especially when the President himself advised “hand-washing”.
Joe-
