NASA Response to Swine Flu

I don't understand this reaction to swine flu. Influenza, the run-of-the-mill strains that go around every year, kill tens of thousands in this country every year and a half million worldwide. This strain of flu has several thousand cases resulting in a dozen deaths worldwide. This swine flu is hardly worthy of mention on the news in my opinion.

>Editor's note: The World Health Organization has increased >its alert level to 5 which suggests that the Swine Flu >outbreak is very serious. At this point it sees no reason to >raise it to the next level which is a pandemic.

Level 5 is pandemic. See: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html

Editor's note: The WHO did say they see no need to raise the level to 6 and that a pandemic is not imminent at this time. Here's the definition:

"Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."

NASA has it's own pandemic plan, has it's own tamiflu stores, and has it's own plans for protecting space missions from community disease according to the story by the Space.com folks yesterday.

They deploy docs and nurses to set up ER's for their folks in hurricanes...

If this whole spaceflight thing does not work out for NASA...maybe they can run FEMA!!!! They seem better prepared than most other government agencies for little things like worldwide pandemics and disasters.

It may seem prudent to cancel JPL Open House, but as of Friday morning there are still no confirmed cases of H1N1 in Los Angeles County. In all of Southern California, there have be fifteen cases, none fatal. It doesn't seem as there is imminent danger to the public in holding this popular event. Have any major league baseball games or airline flights been canceled because of the pandemic yet??

'busloads of tourists from mexico'? this strikes me as a racist remark. I have never seen 'busloads of tourists from mexico' at JPL's open house. But guess what? JPL is in LA county where a lot of people who are hispanic live. sometimes they come to the JPL open house, imagine that.

Editor's note: There was absolutely nothing racist in the comment. It was a stated fact which was passed on to NASA Watch from a source.

NASA GRC Statement
"In light of the health issue and other contributing factors, out of concern for our general public, we are officially cancelling the Stargazing event that was scheduled for Saturday, May 2."

NASA Glenn decides, at last second, to cancel it's biggest event of the year (and the region) "Astronomy Day". Involving the local planetarium and local amatuer astronomy club, this event has been held each year since 2004.

Over-reaction? Their visitor center is still open for normal traffic and are still holding their 'fashion week' event on Sunday, May 3.