Sunday, May 3, 2009

FREAK OF THE WEEK: Vice President Joe Biden

This week, the FredBlog shines its freaklight on U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who demonstrated that swine flu can lead to foot-in-mouth disease.

I’ve been hearing from readers who are concerned that too many Freaks of the Week are Republican and/or Conservative. Well, rest assured that the FredBlog does not discriminate. A freak is a freak regardless of ideology or political party.

That brings us to Vice President Biden, who has a history of saying the most stupid thing ever. This past week, he did not disappoint.

While being interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show, Biden raised the swine flu alert to red. In a fit of swine flu madness, Biden said, “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 in a confined aircraft where one person sneezes, that goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me.”

As if that weren’t bad enough – grammatically and otherwise – he continued: “I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway. From my perspective, this relates to mitigation. If you’re out in the middle of the field and someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft, a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, that’s another thing.”

That’s right, folks. Listen to your vice president and DON’T take the subway – even if you live in a big city with no car and use the subway to go everywhere, including work. Better to go without a paycheck than have someone at the other end of the train sneeze.

Oh, and – according to Mr. Biden – don’t send your kids to school, either. All those “closed classrooms” can be tricky to navigate. And it’s a good thing Biden said something because parents had NO IDEA that their kids could catch something from other kids at school.

Can we please get some perspective here? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has confirmed about 135 cases of swine flu in 18 U.S. states – and most of the cases have been mild. The World Health Organization estimates about 800 cases globally, most of them in Mexico.

Now let’s look at the normal regular everyday flu. Again according to the CDC, every year approximately 5 percent to 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized for flu-related complications. About 36,000 Americans die on average each year from the complications of flu.

So, Mr. Biden, can we please stop the fear mongering?

Of course, politics being politics, various members of the Obama administration went on the air to tell the American people what Biden MEANT to say.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, “I think … what the vice president meant to say was the same thing that again, many members have said in the last few days, that is, if you feel sick, if you are exhibiting flu-like symptoms – coughing, sneezing, runny nose – that you should take precautions, that you should limit your travel. … I’m telling you what he meant to say.”

Reporters laughed, with good reason.

That didn’t work, so the administration brought out a bigger gun – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (no stranger to freakiness herself). She said, “I think the vice president, if he had, if he could say that over again, he would say if they’re feeling sick they should stay off public transit or confined spaces because that is indeed the advice that we’re giving.”

That’s all well and good, Ms. Napolitano. But that’s not what Biden said. In fact, he specifically said in that interview that he was not talking for the administration, but for himself and his family. So all of this handwringing doesn’t take away from the fact that the vice president speaks before he thinks.

MORE SWINE FLU FREAKINESS

While I’m on the subject, another freak move this past week was the decision of some organizations and governments to change the name of “swine flu” to “Mexican flu.”

One of the reasons for the change was that pork producers were offended that the name unfairly targets their products. Still others – like the Israeli government – changed the name because any reference to pigs is offensive to both religious Jews and Muslims.

So we don’t want to offend the pigs and the religious, but it’s fine to call it “MEXICAN flu”? I guess it’s OK to offend Mexicans.

Also, pork producers want to make it clear that you cannot get swine flu from eating swine. But can you get Mexican flu from eating a Mexican? No one is saying.

No comments:

Post a Comment