Vectors, vectors, everywhere

Remember the tainted tomatoes? Remember how it took the FDA weeks to say the word "Mexico" and shut down imports?

The swine flu outbreak is more of the same and another one for your Bush III file. Napolitano did not act quickly enough to limit travel and has yet to close the border. Why? Because the political image of Mexico as our friend is more important than public safety.

Of course, we knew that just by looking at our immigration policy, but this just shows you how deep our loyalty goes.

As a result, new vectors for the virus continue to enter the United States. Watching people get off airplanes at O'Hare is NOT a reliable way to screen for the virus.

Had the outbreak been limited to a town in rural Mexico one could justify the limited approach, but people in Mexico City were already infected and health officials there were shutting the city down. Ergo, affluent Mexicans and visitors likely to travel were not kept out of the US.

As a result, the number of infected people and their distribution around the United States has grown. This is not the policy of containment as is commonly practiced in disease control.

Homeland Security fails us again.