Mexican Swine Flu

[Bob_Roller]

Don't know if you have been following the outbreak of a swine flu virus in Mexico, and now confirmed to be in the US.

In my daily work routine at Southwest Airlines with talking to other employees in our main office in Dallas, Texas,, I learned  of the official government response, to possibility  shutting down  the commercial aviation industry in the US, in the not to distant future, if this virus 'explodes' in the general population, as it's feared to do.

[Justin B.]

Rotten swine...

[nhmaf]

Well, maybe if they end up closing the border crossings in/out of Mexico for a couple weeks due to the flu we'll see if there is also any beneficial  reduction in drug traffic and reduction in drug cartel violence.

Just trying to find a silver lining..

[Bob_Roller]

The time frame that is being 'tossed' about for shutting down the  aviation industry,  is a lot longer than a few weeks, rumor is 6 months.

[Justin B.]

Interesting.  Mike, unfortunately most of the shady stuff happens away from "legal" border crossings...

I remember the last swine flu scare when I was in the Army during the mid 70s.  Seems they made us take some sort of brand-new vaccine for it and then the vaccine killed a bunch of people.

[MrRiden]

Airport passengers being watched, Soccer games canceled, crowd less concerts. This reads like a Twilight Zone episode.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Lucky_Lou]

Too little too late the cats out of the bag grab your tammy flu now
Lou

[Justin B.]

The news just said there were three confirmed cases in Dallas...  I had no idea this was going to be THAT big of a deal!

[Bob_Roller]

The information that I received yesterday, was that the 'Crisis Control Board' at Southwest was called together today, the only time this has ever happened before, is with dealing with an aircraft 'incident', they have only been called two times before, when we had two incidents involving an aircraft over running the runway, and going through airport boundary fences .

So I knew that they had more 'inside' information on this situation, than was being released to the public, at the time.

[Semper Gumby]

Oh sh#t!  

No pay for six months...yikes!  I guess that kills the summer riding season.

<sigh>

[Justin B.]

I just don't see how an entire industry could be shut down for that length of time...  Maybe restrictions as to where flights go to and come from...

[Danie]

O damm.........I already bought our flight tickets for our planned visit to the US in August about a month ago. The flight schedule includes landings in Amsterdam and Detroit.

 If Holland, Canada, or the US do shut  down all passenger traffic from abroad, hopefully I will be able to get my money back........

[Bengt_Phorqs]

I'm with Justin.  I don't see how the airline industry could possibly be shut down for any period of time much longer than a week.  They did it after 9-11 for a week or so, but even then there were certain VIP flights in the air.  Not to make light of a potentially serious situation, but it seems like the government always has to do the politically correct thing and over-react on the side of caution.  They don't really know what they have so the rumour mill is going into overdrive.

[Justin B.]

I'm listening to the news, right now, and it seems that health department folks are hanging out at the bus station and other bus stops as bus loads of people from Mexico are descending upon us trying to get away from "all the sick people"...  

I read a snip on foxnews.com indicating that the CDC has admitted it's probably already too late to prevent wisespread outbreaks of the bug.  After watching the news and seeing people swarming off buses I think they are most likely correct.  The majority interviewed didn't seem to realize the seriousness of the issue they just wanted to "get the F*** out of Dodge" and as far away from the bug as possible.

[aussie]

Well Oz has just made a new rule....on any flights from the 'Americas' (I assume this means North, Central an South), pilots have to ask passengers if they have any flu-like symptoms prior to landing.

Not quite sure what happens if someone says 'yes'.... - it's not as if they are going to be turned around and told to go home again.