 |
|
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
|
| |
Jewish World Review
May 1, 2009
/ 7 Iyar 5769
Swine flu should prompt closure of U.S.-Mexican border
By
Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I don't get why "swine flu" equals worldwide pandemonium while the generic flu that kills hundreds of thousands of people every year is a non-event. But OK, the experts do, which is why I guess the Obama administration has kicked into pandemic-prevention mode, declaring a full-blown "national health emergency."
But if the administration talks up the emergency, how seriously, really, is it taking the emergency?
Let's review. Scores of deaths in Mexico are attributed to "swine flu." Check. A New York City school becomes a swine flu hotspot after students return from Mexico. Check. The United Sates declares a "national health emergency" on Sunday. Check. Also on Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano notes that travel advisories have not been issued by the State Department, nor is the United States going to screen passengers on flights arriving from Mexico.
Not check. While the U.S. government went ahead and issued a travel advisory on nonessential travel to Mexico on Monday, it has still in no way restricted travel from Mexico, not even for a day or two to assess the path and scope of the outbreak. This is why at the end of Swine Flu, Week One, the first line of flu defense at the U.S.-Mexican border are American bus drivers spraying their buses with cans of Lysol.
There is something screwy going on. It started with the unfathomable official insistence from the get-go that closing the border on a pandemic emerging in Mexico was pointless even as the same officials simultaneously declared their ignorance on the nature and potential of the contagious new bug. But why curb nonessential travel into the hot zone, as the U.S. government ultimately did, without curbing nonessential travel out of the hot zone? It didn't make sense. But this is the position that became policy. "At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," President Obama said at his Wednesday press conference: "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States."
Well, relatively few cases here in the United States, Mr. President, with some significant number of them having come in via Mexico. If public health is the overriding concern, why guarantee more such "horses" keep coming? If, indeed.
"Closing the border would yield only very marginal benefits," Napolitano told the Senate on Wednesday. "At the same time, closing the border has very high costs." Aha: benefits versus costs. What did Napolitano mean? Such costs, as she told NBC, include the "thousands of trucks and lots of commerce that cross that border." Does that mean that blocking the path to market for, say, Mexican-grown strawberries isn't worth the "very marginal benefits" of potentially saving American lives? Chilling thought.
The World Health Organization, as of this writing, isn't issuing travel advisories to affected areas for similar non-health reasons. "Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl insisted early in the week, as reported by Fox News. Referring to the 2003 SARS outbreak, during which WHO actively discouraged nonessential travel to cities including Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto — a move, Fox notes, that world health experts say "sharply cut the spread of SARS"— Hartl added: "There was much more economic disruption caused by these measures than there was public health benefit."
This is getting downright creepy. In whose opinion was there more "economic disruption" than "public health benefit" — the people who didn't fall victim to SARS or the people who mourned temporarily lower profits? And why does what is ostensibly a global health organization weigh the bottom line more than, well, global health? It seems that our leaders, both domestic and global, are attaching greater importance to potentially lost revenue than to potentially lost people.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan let it all hang out: "By definition, pandemic influenza will move around the world. ... Does that mean we are going to bring the world's economy to a standstill?" Nice bedside manner, that. Little wonder China, certainly a proponent of keeping the world's economy moving, "extended full support" when Chan was a candidate to lead WHO.
Of course, when it comes to the U.S.-Mexican border, there's probably a deeper, more psychological reason it remains open: Our government doesn't want to close it, not for anything. George W. Bush didn't want to secure the border, not even to stop terrorist incursions or illegal immigration, and Barack H. Obama doesn't want to secure the border, not even to stop terrorist incursions, illegal immigration, drug cartel violence or what is being billed as the 21st century plague. It might set a dangerous precedent. It might demonstrate to citizens of both countries that the United States is capable of controlling its borders. To the globalists and amnesty proponents of the past and present administrations, that is the scariest prospect of all, scarier even the prospect of the great flu pandemic of 2009.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY DIANA'S LATEST BOOK ... |
|  at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.) by clicking HERE. |
|
JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist for The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2008, Diana West
|
