Leaders don’t touch Biden flu remarks

Leaders of both parties on Thursday dodged questions regarding Vice President Biden’s alarmist comments about the H1N1 flu, but gave high marks to the
Obama administration for communicating with Congress and urging “commonsense”
measures to reduce the risk of pandemic.

“I did not actually see — I guess he was on TV this morning, Vice President
Biden,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at her weekly news conference.
“But I did see the statement put out by the administration about taking a
commonsense approach to all of this, which is use common sense in terms of
your own physical situation as to whether you travel, go to work, or you send
your children to school.”

{mosads}The question about Biden’s comments — made Thursday on NBC’s “Today Show,” in which the vice president said he would personally advise his family to avoid
traveling in confined spaces such as airplanes or a trains — was one of only a
small number of questions Pelosi took during her 30-minute weekly press
conference with reporters.

“I do think the administration has been exemplary in how they have gone forward
with this,” Pelosi continued. “They moved before most of us even knew this
subject had arisen … Before most people in our country knew they had already had
a plan of action.”

“Again, [it is also a] tribute to the previous administration as well for
having certain structures in place,” the Speaker added.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) also avoided wading into the
Biden controversy.

“Listen, I think people know they need to take commonsense precautions to
prevent the spread of this flu,” Boehner said. “I think the administration has
worked very closely with Congress, the leaders in Congress. I have no
complaints about how they’re proceeding.”

Neither leader used the more common term “swine flu” to describe the virus that
has world health officials worried about a pandemic. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention continues to refer to the virus as swine flu, while the White House and
the Agriculture Department have pushed for the virus to be called the H1N1
flu.

During his appearance on the “Today Show,” Biden responded to a question about
how he would advise his family regarding air travel to Mexico by saying: “I
would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined
places now,” he said. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s that you are in
a confined aircraft [and] when one person sneezes, it goes all the way through
the aircraft. That’s me.”

The White House quickly issued the following statement:

“On the ‘Today Show’ this morning the vice president was asked what he would
tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week,”
said Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander. “The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration
is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to
and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other
confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president
has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week.”