CNN

Sad, hope they feel better soon. Everyone needs to take a deep breath, and ....... relax!

31,000 people DIE each year of the REGULAR flu!

Quarantine O and his staff. Let them out in 3 1/2 yrs. Think of the savings!

The President and officials at the CDC give sound advice about the swine flu and things to do to avoid getting/spreading the virus. However, unlike those on their staff, I am severely under-employed AND uninsured. I have to go to work or I don't eat; won't have money for the necessities. I cannot afford to get sick either. Catch 22 right. So unless I am forced to stay home with the promise of pay (benefits) I'll be going to the job and continue looking for a better one. There are many people like me that are struggling. But because we don't have children to support (mine are grown) we don't count as families (divorced). Do we count ANYWHERE?

Can the flu be spread from kissing the behind of foreign dictators? If so, the president should be under quarantine already.

mr. prez, i hope you don't get sick
we need a strong leader in a crisis like this

No there doing it for same reason this administration does everything...to be able to sensationalize the outcome and make people rely on their "supposed caring and help" . On the TARP money and Stimulus it will be "see I did my best to keep us from needing socialism but it didn't work, so now we need to take over the capital markets to keep you safe".

Now it's going to be "now you can understand why we need nationalized health care, so we can control the outbreaks" it will end up costing us our freedom of choice in care and doctors and people will be dying waiting for the most basic care. All the while they do nothing to protect our borders.

I can't believe Americans are so gullible in believing all their hipe...I thought we were a lot, lot smarter than this. They are sitting every night laughing their asses off at us on how they can play out the next drama.

Some flu kills worse than others.
Everyone was Kung Flu Dancing!

Why is the media reporting about somone in the white house who had flu, who now is well and we don 't if they had the swine flu?

If president Obama caught this guess what would happen...

He would be sick for a few days then right back to work.

This is not some incredibly deadly virus. If you are really young, really old, or have AIDS then this is a problem. But then again if you are really young, really old or have AIDS this is just one thing in a myriad of potentially dangerous illnesses to contract.

The rate of death of normal flu is near 1 in 10,000. Swine Flu? 600 in 10,000. That is the difference. Duh. Sure there hasn't been thousands of deaths yet, but focus on the yet. In 1918 the Spanish flu killed more people than both World Wars combined.

Considering Obama is importing European Socialism and Canadian Healthcare.... why should anyone be surprised he brought back Mexican Swine-Flu?

Seeing a lot of small-minded, ignorant comments here.
The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed an estimated 100 million people worldwide. That's more people than were killed in WWI and WWII combined. And that was before worldwide air travel.
Yes, regular flu kills 36,000 people a year, but they are mostly elderly and infants. The Spanish Flu virus, like the Swine Flu, tended to hit healthy adults (their own immune systems overreact and kill them).
So maybe you can see the cause for alarm. Is it not better to "sensationalize" and make people a little more cautious than to downplay it and watch people – perhaps many people – die needlessly?
And yeah, the Obama aide has since recovered. But if he had Swine Flu, who else might he have spread it to? Your senators? The president? They might not be as lucky as the aide was, and early intervention could make a difference.

Can't believe good sensible people are shouting 'close the border" like that will stop an airborne virus?????????????????

This is all desinsitization for the real problems comming ahead, but it's gonna turn into the boy crying wolf situation when it really happens.

Geez, I thought the president said no cause for alarm! Just concern...hummmm bet if he comes down with the flu, it will be cause for some real action! How disgusting...he shouldn't have been scurrying off to spend tax payers money, I thought the foreign stuff was Hillary's job! I'd rather see him waste taxpayers money on photo shoots over ground zero in NY.

This isn't Mexicos fault, this was from a virus that went from birds to pigs then infected humans. Its very possible this Virus was brought into the US via an animal, or tourist, ect. Anyway Viruses can get past boundaries, ive never seen a border patrol deport a virus. Its Influenza its been around forever, the only reason ppl are spooked is because they haven't made a vaccine for this strain yet. take care of the elderly and the babies, anyone with a healthy immune system with proper treatment should be fine. Just like the Time Article, if you're gonna blame someone for this virus, its not mexico or pigs, its biology.

Who cares if the old flu kills more than the new flu? The fact is, no one in the world has immunity to swine flu, so pretty much everyone can get sick. And if hundreds of millions of people are sick, how can people get medical treatment? There is simply not enough medicine for that many people, so in the end, many more people will die than the old influenza. If this becomes a full blown pandemic.

Close our borders.

Uh, Oh, I hope that President Obama and his family were tested for this virus?

You would think that we are living out the beginning of "The Stand" by the way this is so sensationalized.

To all of those people who say it isn't the end of the world because it is just another flu, I think that if you got it or a member of your family you would be the first to say that it wasn't hyped enough. Think a bit before you make a stupid comment.

Yeah, what was he doing there? He should have been on vacation like Bush was all the time. LOL

I can't even begin to tell you my leval of increasing frustration with the boder not being closed!

I think the Presidents cute little quip about "closing the barn door after the cows are already out" is seriously flawed thinking.

President Obama let me give you another anology.

It's summer and the flies are out, I yell out "close the scrren door" as I notice one flying around. Nobody bothers to close it, soon there a 4 or five, I am losing track as I get up for the swatter.

Now I see they are everywhere and I really have my work cut out for me as I begin to swat! Why?

Because noone bothered to CLOSE THE SCREEN DOOR!!

This spread worldwide extremely quickly if it began as an isolated incident in Mexico.

****************************************************************
Capt. Tripps spares no one. There is no way that this flu was not engineered in some lab somewhere. I don't believe that nature can combine several types of flu viruses together like this. Is our government not telling us everything we need to know. We can't even get the truth out of them about why our soilders are coming home from Iraq ill with their blood contaminated with an unknown virus ! ****************************************************************

I think this whole thing is contrived and being blown out of proportion...for the sole purpose of making the almighty wondrous Obama look good.

Relax people time to hire a Czar to look into the problem....HA HA HA ...
As one person said no shaking hands, just bow you have perfected that............

I hope all the nay sayers on this blog don't get sick. All you whinners do is find things to complain about with this administration. If you morons had an ounce of knowledge you can see how this thing is spreading as oppose to the way flu spreads normally. I pray you stay healthy, this thing is killing people.

Gosh.
Someone got sick and all some folks can say is how it serves him right because he works for the current adminstration.
I don't know how much lower some people can sink

The baby who died in Texas was from Mexico getting health care here. If we're going to give free health care to Mexico, then we need to send some charitable volunteers there to do it.

How can they test now to see if this person had the N1H1 flu since he had recovered?

Thank you

Give me a break already...

Closed borders don't stop viruses. That includes the virus of xenophobia.

Just think if the U.N. took terrorism as seriously as the W.H.O. is taking the swine flu?

To those of you joking or making fun of this person shame on you – you really need to ask yourself if you are really that mean spirited...

Must be from all the pork he and his staff shoved in the budget.

Was he in the confined space of Air Force One with VP Biden? If so, watch out Joe!

As a progressive and a reluctant Obama voter, you liberals need to realize that Paul Krugman was right. Obama should have listened to the left and done things the right way instead of the Wall Street way. It's obvious the economy isn't getting better. These policies are failing.

Regular Flu 36,000 deaths in the U.S. per year

Swine Flu 1 death in the U.S.

BREAKING NEWS THE W.H.O. RAISED THE THREAT LEVEL TO LEVEL 5!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!

Seriously, Biden's comments were stupid and FEARMONGERING!

Everybody gets sick when they come back from Mexico City! It's called Montezumas Revenge! This swine flu has been blown way out of proportion. It's a way to sell the drug tamaflu and control our population and the Mexican population. It seems to be working...

Make up your mind. Is the staffer "sick" or "since recovered"?

Perhaps a mandatory quarantine should be enacted .... before this virus spreads even more.

Good job Mr. President.

Thankfully he recovered. One really has to be careful whether or not the flu is going around. Kissing, shaking hands and sharing personal items have to take a back seat sometimes. Maybe we should do like the Japanese – bow when you meet someone. As to general hygiene – I have seen some downright gross things taking place in and around NY. It is amazing that we are not smitten with more contageous diseases all year long. Kudos to the Mexican government for seemingly doing all they can to control the virus. I hear that the cases seem to be leveling off.

They should have asked Biden first, so that they could have all driven in separate cars and ont have been confined on that plane. I hope that persion didn't sneeze while on the plane, if so, our government is doomed.

Shoot. He's already recovered so what's the big deal. Chill folks. Too much news.

This whole swine flu "pandemic" is being sensationalized by the media over and over again to get ratings. Do you people have any idea how many people die a year from plain ol' influenza????? 36,000! Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, use hand sanitizer. this isn't the end of the world people. Geeeezzzzz.

I don't know when you guys are going to close the bonder. Not only do we have drugs coming in, now diseases. Give me a break.

Are you serious!!! My question is, "Why is the government trying to scare the American people?" Is this a preparedness strategy for the real pandemic that's coming? What are they doing??? It seems like they're testing how far they can go in causing an uproar, panic, and chaos with the American people, in order to get some type of statistical measure of how it's going to be when the world really does get out of hand and terrorism really does strike again (the plane over New York). Are they trying to boost the economy by taking tourist money away from Mexico? What is it? Why are there so many fashionable pictures of people with mask on? The mask that is not even going to prevent the "swine flu"!! The media is the source of confusion of the American people. You guys just keep on feeding it and feeding it and beating that dead horse. What in the world.....

P.S. Delete the percentages I put above, as I am wrong on the numbers. However, I still believe the more the bug is spreading, it is maintaining itself as a "mild" strain, as the reports keep saying.

Why is the media treating this like its an outbreak of Ebola virus?

Look up statistics on deaths this year from normal flu and realise just how dumb all this hype is.

Swell – shouldn't have been down there to begin with. All he managed to do was to embarass the US sucking up to Chavez and now this!

I am starting to believe this whole 2009 H1N1 flu strain is being hyped up way, way out of proportion, even considering this is a new strain, with no human being (except those previously and already afflicted with it) have any kind of natural immunity. I believe that Mexico, as "ground zero" for this flu, was hit the hardest and had the most fatalities, then the flu got passed on to people visiting Mexico, kind of making that a "second go round" with the bug (first round: animal to human), and although severe, fatalities are lower than the initial impact. My belief is the more this strain is passed around, the more it's mutuating into a relatively milder flu strain. Now, if you look at how many people in Mexico got this flu, and how many of them died from it, it is relatively 1.5 – 2% of those who got it that died. The Spanish flu of 1918/1919 killed approximately 5% of the poeple who got it. That's double the amount of people who so far have been killed by this current strain. Over-hyped? Absolutely.

Keep him away from my President.....thank you!

wouldn't that be justice...the current adminstration, despite it's valiant attempts to breakdown the United States into a 3rd world country, gets wiped out by a disease from a 3rd world country...now, that's change I could live with! HOPE!

Close the border!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When's the last time any party of that size has traveled to Mexico without somebody coming back with flu-like symptoms?

Should we panic...

Because you don't know, who is who. Can you really trust, the guy your standing next to. Where does the next threat come from?

It is non-sense to over analyze a comment that was made by Vice President Biden. He was telling the truth and answered that was asked. Therefore, we should all use some common sense to prevent the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus.

The American public does not need be left in the dark or lied to at this point regarding this particular influenza virus that is killing people. We do not need the let just wait and see scenario like what went wrong with Katrina-in New Orleans. I am very happy that President Obama, Vice President Biden and the CDC are taking proactive measures and recommendations to keep people from contracting this deadly influenza virus.

This little message is for the news media and all the other individuals who feel that the American public can not handle the truth, or would rather be lied to about a possible world wide health crisis stop your “overblown and over analysis the truth.

Thanks Obama for dragging some disease up here on top of us!

If this swine flu is as serious as the administration says it is, then why hasn't President Obama appointed a permanent director to the Centers for Disease Control (cdc) yet?

Now that its in the government, you should start to see Obama take action.

I'll take Biden's advice to avoid confined places...I wont climb into any footlockers.

Please keep President Obama safe and healthy. The country needs him! I hope the Energy Department staffer and his family are doing
well.

Just great........I knew ALL these guys should have stayed in Mexico! The way this administration is killing this country, we could run the country just fine without them.

Okay, why even make this news if the staffer in the white house has already recovered? CNN, your headline makes it seems as if the staffer is still sick and suffering from symptons that could possible be from the "swine flu". Duhhhhhh! Gee, report on something more substantial, please.

I think Joe Biden's precautionarey remarks regarding safeguards against the Swine Flu are RIGHT ON and True. We told the same thing to our family and friends. Criticizing him is ridiculous.

He didn't follow Joe's advice.

H1N1A turns out to be the same strength as regular influenza.
All the Rapturists out there who thought this was a sign of the end times are so disappointed....

Air Force One will need to be DE-VIRUSED. Perhaps, Obama is not sick because he works out a lot or perhaps he has an invisible astronaut helmet on.

This might be cause for concern if The President were, say, William Howard Taft. But for someone as vigorous and well-conditioned as Barack Obama, Swine Flu is the very, very least of his worries.

That's CRAZY!!! Mexico is so 3rd World... it's to the point where their whole entire government is afflicted with the virus. That's a good way to bring down entire civilizations. You'll be in my prayer and I hope I dont catch it. I'll be flying around in America this summer!!!!

Seriously, my friend was spared from the flu or cold last year because she had and bought herself an AIR Purifier in her cube. I swear we need those installed in every train, plane and bus.

I think he is telling the truth , we have to be careful and I think that CNN should run with this story

My bet is they are jumping all over this one.

i know that the president is a very important person, but why all the questipns about how close that new sick guy was to him, what about everyone else he was close to including in mexico, i think that everyones life is just as important . And realy i think it doesn't matter what it's called a realy bad flu that you can get and be ok or die. ( does the name reall matter?) I think almost everyone is some degree is worried about themselfs and there familys and have no idea what to do ,or what not to do, or waht's doing to much.

Mr. President, with all due respect.......No hand shakes until this crisis has passed......Your supporters will understand........

..... and so? It's just another flu. Can we please stop the over-hyped madness? There must be some blond in peril somewhere you can waste all this media coverage on.

Biden was right after all, about airplanes and confined places.

Uh oh. We have a crisis. Better throw some money at it.