Pelosi: Not discouraging travel, but family staying home

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that she’s not discouraging travel by her family to avoid swine flu like Vice President Biden suggested he’d done Thursday, but indicated she might be encouraging them to stay home.

The speaker said that she hadn’t discouraged travel by her family in states affected most severely by swine flu, but rather encouraged “common-sense good practices,” which in this case might mean not leaving their homes in California, Texas, and Arizona.

“I’m not saying to them, you know, let’s all go someplace together, no. They’re living their lives and, again, practicing common-sense good practices,” Pelosi said in her weekly press conference. “And so it’s not a question of not encouraging them not to travel, it’s also a question of encouraging them not to leave home because their states — Texas, California — I’m not absolutely certain about Arizona — but I know New York are three of the states that are the most, shall we say, suspicious in this case.”

Biden had said during an appearance on NBC early this morning that he wouldn’t advise his family to travel in “confined spaces,” particularly in flights to Mexico, where the swine flu broke out. The vice president’s office has since backtracked on those remarks.