Swine flu outbreak shut down economy in mexico

Mexican President Felipe Calderon told his people to stay home from Friday for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, after the World Health Organization said a swine flu pandemic was imminent. Calderon ordered government offices and private businesses not crucial to the economy to stop work to avoid further infections from the new virus, which has killed up to 176 people in Mexico and is now spreading around the world.
"There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus," Calderon said in his first televised address since the crisis erupted last week.
Twelve countries have reported cases of the H1N1 strain, with the Netherlands the latest to join the list. It said a three year-old child had contracted the virus.
Switzerland also confirmed its first case on Thursday, saying a man returning from Mexico had tested positive for the flu. Peru reported the first case in Latin America outside Mexico.
Texas officials on Wednesday reported the first swine flu death outside Mexico, a 22-month-old Mexican boy on a visit.
The WHO raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic.
"Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday. "The biggest question is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start," Chan said.
The world "is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history," she said. WHO has stopped short of recommending travel restrictions, border closures or any limitation on the movement of people, goods or services. WORLD STOCK MARKETS RALLY
Mexico's peso currency weakened sharply early on Thursday after the government called for chunks of the economy to close. The peso fell 1.6 percent to 13.83 per dollar.
But world stocks struck a four-month peak, powered by gains in Asia on Thursday, as investors took heart from signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. arlier in the week markets fell on worries that a major flu outbreak could hit the struggling global economy. Almost all those infected outside Mexico have had mild symptoms, and only a handful of people have been hospitalized.
In Mexico City, a metropolis of 20 million, all schools, restaurants, nightclubs and public events have been shut down to try to stop the disease from spreading, bringing normal life to a virtual standstill.

Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, illustrating the danger of person-to-person transmission. Several countries have banned pork imports though the World Health Organization says swine flu is not spread by eating pork.
President Barack Obama said told an evening news conference at the White House on Wednesday there was no need for panic and rejected the possibility of closing the border with Mexico.
"At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," he said. "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States." Obama also praised his predecessor for stockpiling anti-viral medication in anticipation of such an outbreak.
"I think the Bush administration did a good job of creating the infrastructure so that we can respond," Obama said. "For example, we've got 50 million courses of anti-viral drugs in the event that they're needed."
EXPERT SAYS VIRUS RELATIVELY WEAK
Masato Tashiro, head of the influenza virus research center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Disease and a member of the WHO emergency committee, told Japan's Nikkei newspaper it appeared the H1N1 strain was far less dangerous than avian flu.
"I am very worried that we will use up the stockpile of anti-flu medicine and be unarmed before we need to fight against the avian influenza. The greatest threat to mankind remains the H5N1 avian influenza." Guan Yi, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said the swine flu virus could mix with avian flu, or H5N1. "If it goes to Egypt, Indonesia, these H5N1 endemic regions, it could turn into a very powerful H5N1 that is very transmissible among people. Then we will be in trouble, it will be a tragedy." The WHO's Chan urged companies who make the drugs to ramp up production. Two antiviral drugs -- Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc -- have been shown to work against the H1N1 strain. Mexico's central bank warned the outbreak could deepen the nation's recession, hurting an economy that has shrunk by as much as 8 percent from the previous year in the first quarter. The United States and Canada have advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, and the European Union's health commissioner advised against non-essential travel to areas badly hit by swine flu. Many tourists were hurrying to leave Mexico, crowding airports.
Japan's Masato Tashiro said the possibility of an overreaction to the outbreak was a concern. "Excessive curbing of corporate activity will be a problem. The best course of action is to adopt rational measures." (Reporting by Maggie Fox and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington;
Jason Lange, Catherine Bremer, Alistair Bell and Helen Popper in Mexico City; Laura MacInnis and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Yoko Nishikawa in Tokyo; writing by Andrew Marshall and Dean Yates; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Obama says he doesn't have 'rubber-stamp Senate'

President Obama said Wednesday that he's under no illusions that he'll have a "rubber-stamp Senate" now that Sen. Arlen Specter has switched parties to join the Democrats."To my Republican friends, I want them to realize that me reaching out to them has been genuine," Obama said at a prime time news conference capping his 100th day in office.
"I can't sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years and didn't work and the American people voted to change."
Specter on Tuesday announced he was changing parties, saying he's found himself increasingly "at odds with the Republican philosophy." He also admitted Wednesday he was worried about the prospects of facing a Republican primary in order to keep his seat next year.
Specter's move puts the Democrats one shy of a filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60 seats.
President Obama speaks on the 100th day of his administration.
Senate Democrats can reach the 60-seat mark if courts uphold Al Franken's disputed recount victory in Minnesota.As if to prove the president's point, Specter voted against Obama's budget plan shortly before the news conference.Asked if the GOP is in desperate straits, Obama said, "Politics in America changes very quick. And I'm a big believer that things are never as good as they seem and never as bad as they seem."
Obama has faced criticism from Republicans that he hasn't been reaching across the aisle. His budget moved through both chambers of Congress on Wednesday with no GOP support, and his economic stimulus plan passed with just three Republican votes from the Senate.
The president said he thinks the administration has taken steps to restore confidence in the American people, noting that "simply opposing our approach on every front is probably not a good political strategy." In his first 100 days, he's been "sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slow," said Obama. "That there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we're in the middle of really big crises," he said, adding that he'd like for everyone to say "let's take a time-out on some of the political games."
In a shift from his previous news conferences which were dominated by questions about the economy, Obama fielded multiple queries on the foreign policy front. The president said a recent uptick in violence in Iraq won't affect his plan for a phased military withdrawal.
"Civilian deaths, incidents of bombings ... remain very low relative to what was going on last year," Obama said. "You haven't seen the kinds of huge spikes that you were seeing for a time. The political system is holding and functioning in Iraq." Obama said more details need to be nailed down before U.S. troops leave Iraq -- including how oil revenues will be divided, what the powers of provincial governments there will be and the political relationships between minority Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites -- including the armed Sons of Iraq groups.
On Pakistan, the president said the United States has "huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable" and doesn't end up a "nuclear-armed militant state."
"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan. I'm more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile and don't seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services," he said. Obama also said Wednesday he is "very comfortable" with his decision to ban interrogation techniques like waterboarding, which he called torture.
The president called the practice a recruiting tool for terrorist groups like al Qaeda, citing World War II-era British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who also rejected such "enhanced interrogation" techniques. "Churchill understood that if you start taking shortcuts, over time that corrodes what's best in a people," Obama said. "It corrodes the character of a country."
Asked about the previous administration, he said, "I think that whatever legal rationale were used, it was a mistake."
On the recent outbreaks of swine flu, Obama insisted his administration is "prepared to do whatever it takes to control the impact of the virus." "I've asked every American to take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: Keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you're sick; and keep your children home from school if they're sick," he said. Obama downplayed the possibility of closing the border with Mexico as a way to control the virus, also known by its clinical name of H1N1.
"It would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out," Obama said
The first cases of the virus were detected in Mexico, where health officials suspect swine flu in more than 150 other deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses. Only 26 cases have so far been confirmed, including the seven fatal cases. So far, the World Health Organization has reported 148 cases in nine countries. Obama said the $1.5 billion he asked from Congress to help fight the outbreaks will help government health officials monitor and track the virus and replenish the supply of antiviral drugs.
On immigration, Obama said he wants to work with members of Congress, including former Republican presidential rival Sen. John McCain, to revive efforts to reform the system.
Obama said he hopes lawmakers will begin working on such reform legislation and expects the process to be under way within the year. Both Obama and McCain supported an ultimately failed plan backed by then-President Bush that would have fined illegal immigrants living in the United States but provided a pathway to citizenship for some. Obama's news conference came just hours after both chambers of Congress passed his $3.4 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2010.
The measure approves most of Obama's key spending priorities and sets the federal government in a new direction with major increases for energy, education and health care programs. Obama said his budget begins to lay a "new foundation" that will strengthen the U.S. economy. "But even as we clear away the wreckage of this recession, I've also said that we can't go back to an economy that is built on a pile of sand -- on inflated home prices and maxed-out credit cards; on overleveraged banks and outdated regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the prosperity of all," he said.The United States "will see a better day," but there's still a lot of work to do, he said.
"I want to thank the American people for their support and their patience during these trying times, and I look forward to working with you in the next hundred days, in the hundred days after that, all of the hundreds of days to follow, to make sure that this country is what it can be."

100 U.S. schools closed due to swine flu

At least 74 schools have closed across the country because of confirmed or probable cases of swine flu and 30 more have closed as a precautionary measure, the Department of Education said Wednesday.

The elementary, junior high and high schools have closed because of the H1N1 virus, Department of Education spokesman Massie Ritsch said.
The closures of public and private schools across eight states affect about 56,000 students out of an estimated 55 million students attending the nation's 100,000 kindergarten through 12th grade schools, Ritsch said.
Some of the schools that were closed had already reopened, he said.
In addition to closures announced earlier Wednesday, the Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas said it will temporarily close all of its schools until further notice, affecting roughly 80,000 students, according to its Web site.
Schools will likely not reopen any sooner than Monday, May 11, the district said.
School officials said they made the decision after receiving official confirmation of one case of swine flu at one campus and news of three other probable cases at three more schools.
"We have been diligently following the recommendations of our local public health authorities since this crisis first began," Superintendent Melody Johnson said. "We will continue to work with the senior-most staff of the local health department."

On Wednesday, President Obama called on schools with confirmed or possible swine flu cases to "strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that everyone involved in schools needs to "pitch in and do our part to prevent the spread of this flu virus."
"Use the same common sense and courtesy that you would use during winter flu season: Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough and stay home if you are sick," Duncan said.
The secretary said the department is closely monitoring the flu outbreak and urged schools to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Do what is appropriate for the health of your communities, your schools and your students," Duncan said.
Department of Education officials and experts from the CDC held a conference call Monday with more than 1,700 people from national education associations, state school offices, individual schools and school districts.
The Department of Education emphasized the need for "common sense" preventative measures among students and faculty in school facilities, an official said.Education officials also stressed the need for people showing any flu-like symptoms to stay away from school and called on administrators to report any suspected or confirmed cases to local public health authorities as well as the Department of Education.
If a school has a confirmed case of swine flu, the CDC recommends closing the facility for about seven days

U.S. confirmed First swine flu death as cases increase

A 22-month-old child became the first swine flu fatality in the United States Wednesday, as the number of confirmed cases of the virus increased.

An official at the World Health Organization said Wednesday evening that his agency had confirmed 114 cases of swine flu worldwide. However, that number did not include additional cases announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), now at 91.
The WHO was still listing 64 swine flu cases for the United States. "It's clear that the virus is spreading, and we don't see it slowing down at this point," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO, at a news conference.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Houston's Health Department told CNN that the dead child had traveled from Mexico to Houston, for treatment.
Kathy Barton said the child, who died Monday, was not an American citizen. She did not know where the child was from in Mexico.
President Barack Obama expressed his condolences to the family and called on schools in the U.S. with confirmed or possible swine flu cases to "strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."
The apparent spread of swine flu was not unexpected, CDC acting director Dr. Richard Besser told CNN.
"Flu is a very serious infection and each virus is unique, and so it's hard to know what we're going to be seeing," Besser said. "But given what we've seen in Mexico we have expected that we would see more severe infections and we would see deaths."
Six of the 91 confirmed swine flu cases in the United States have been reported in Texas, according to the CDC.

A preliminary image of the swine flu virus from the Centers for Disease Control.
The United States is taking precautionary measures to stem the spread of the disease, of which most cases are not severe.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that the federal government would be releasing nearly 13 million doses of antiviral medications to try to stem the spread of the virus.
Besser added that the CDC is "taking aggressive action to try and limit the impact of this on our communities," but is not changing its recommendations as a result of the confirmed swine flu death.
"I expect we'll see more cases," Besser said. "And as we do, we'll learn more about this, and if there needs to be more stringent or less stringent recommendations, we'll be making those."
He stressed that people should maintain their perspective on the swine flu outbreak.

"Seasonal flu each year causes tens of thousands of deaths in this country, on average, about 36,000 deaths," Besser said. "And so this flu virus in the United States, as we're looking at it, is not acting very differently from what we saw during the flu season."
Germany and Austria became the latest European countries to report swine flu, while the number of cases increased in Britain and Spain.
Mexico is where the global outbreak originated. While only 26 cases have been confirmed in Mexico -- including the seven deaths -- health officials there suspect the swine flu outbreak has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses.
They also believe they may have found "patient zero" in the global outbreak in the small village of La Gloria in the mountains of Mexico.
Five-year-old Edgar Hernandez -- known as "patient zero" by his doctors -- survived the earliest documented case of swine flu in the current outbreak. He lives near a pig farm, though experts have not established a connection between that and his illness.

Edgar has managed to bounce back from his symptoms and playfully credits ice cream for helping him feel better.
Researchers do not know how the virus is jumping relatively easily from person to person, or why it's affecting what should be society's healthiest demographic. Many of the victims who have died in Mexico have been young and otherwise healthy.
The deadly outbreak in Mexico has prompted authorities to order about 35,000 public venues in Mexico City to shut down or serve only take-out meals as health officials tried to contain spreading of the virus.
Governments around the world are scrambling to prevent further outbreak.

Some, such as China and Russia, have banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico, though the World Health Organization says the disease is not transmitted through eating or preparing pig meat. Several others countries, such as Japan and Indonesia, are using thermographic devices to test the temperature of passengers arriving from Mexico.

Obama said the outbreak is a cause for concern, not for alarm. The U.S. government has urged travelers to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency authorization for the use of two of the most common anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza. The authorization allows the distribution of the drugs by a broader range of health-care workers and loosens age limits for their use.
In Mexico City, however, there is a shortage of such medication. And it became impossible to find protective surgical masks, which the government had handed out to one out of every five residents.

Swine influenza, or flu, is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs.
When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight, because people have no natural immunity.

Symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year worldwide, far more than the current outbreak of swine flu.

NewYork plane scares whitehouse won't happen again,obama says

President Barack Obama said on Tuesday a flight by one of his planes over New York, which caused panic and the evacuation of some office buildings, was a mistake and would not happen again.
"It was a mistake as stated. It was something we found out about along with all of you. It will not happen again," Obama told reporters during a visit to FBI headquarters.
The flight on Monday over lower Manhattan by one of the presidential Boeing 747s for a photo-shoot infuriated New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who demanded an explanation. He criticized it as insensitive and demanded to know why the public had not been informed.
New Yorkers are still sensitive to any incident that evokes the September 11 attacks in 2001 in which hijacked airliners destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Many people panicked and evacuated office buildings when the plane, escorted by an F-16 fighter jet, flew low over lower Manhattan.
Aides said Obama had been furious when he learned of the incident. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, communicated that to the director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, who ordered the mission and has apologized.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs faced a barrage of questions about the incident at a news conference but declined to be drawn on Caldera's future. Obama similarly refused to comment when asked by a reporter whether Caldera was the right man for the job.
Gibbs said the president had directed Jim Messina, the White House deputy chief of staff, to look into how the decision to conduct the flight had been arrived at. The review was expected to take several weeks, he said.
The flyover involved one of the presidential planes, whose call sign is Air Force One when the president is aboard, and an F-16 fighter.
Police said federal authorities had told them not to disclose any information to the public beforehand about the flight, the aim of which was to get a publicity photo of the plane against a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty.
Republican Senator John McCain wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates demanding that the administration provide some answers. McCain called the mission "a fundamentally unsound exercise in military judgment and may have constituted an inappropriate use of Department of Defense resources."

Obama face Frist 100 days of foreign affairs

Judging by the hysterical reaction in some quarters, to President Obama's handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or his bow to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, you would think that America's national security rested solely on body language not sound policy.

But just for the record, let's not forget that President George W. Bush kissed and held hands with the same Abdullah after 9/11, while also looking deep into the soul of Vladimir Putin. And a generation earlier, egged on by British Prime Minister "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, President "Tear Down That Wall" Ronald Reagan, decided that indeed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was a man he could do business with: the business of ending the Cold War.

The presidential handshake between Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez spurred many comments.
While Obama has not managed in 100 days to defeat Islamic militants, usher in a Middle East peace treaty or disarm North Korea, on these and other issues he has laid down some important groundwork. Most importantly, the global polls following his first overseas trip show he has begun restoring America's name and reputation, key ingredients to successful policy making.
Even before stepping onto foreign soil, Obama began by ordering the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention center closed, thus returning the United States to upholding the very same rule of law it preaches to other nations. He also has stated over and over again that "America does not torture," thus returning the United States to leading on human rights, not cherry-picking them.
To those such as former Vice President Dick Cheney who claims this will make America more vulnerable, even some former Bush administration officials now concede that rigorous but patient above-board interrogation has proven to yield better, more reliable intelligence than a rush to the waterboard.
Obama has kept a campaign pledge and given a fixed date for ending the unpopular U.S. war in Iraq. "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," he announced.Yet the perils are clear. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed in Baghdad and other cities in a surge of sectarian violence since January. The Obama administration and U.S. military leaders are playing it down, blaming the suicide bombings on a few militant cells. That brings back memories of Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blaming a "handful of dead-enders" as the original insurgency was getting into full swing. Much work still needs to be done to stabilize Iraq militarily and politically.
Drawing down in Iraq means surging in Afghanistan, which along with Pakistan is still viewed as the central front on terror. "If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged," Obama said in March, "that country will again be a base for terrorists."
So he has ordered 21,000 new U.S. troops there by summer. But for all the talk of more boots on the ground, negotiating with moderate Taliban and beefing up Afghan security forces, danger will persist unless the Afghan people see more of a peace dividend. As Obama himself recognizes, "There will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan." Dire poverty still stalks the land and people desperate to feed their families will lay an IED for cash if they cannot farm or find a decent paying job. Although the Taliban had less than 8 percent support in Afghanistan at the end of 2007, according to an ABC poll, Afghan public opinion is turning against the U.S.-led coalition partly because of the rising number of civilian casualties as the U.S. military hunts down terrorists with airstrikes.
The same is happening in Pakistan. When unmanned drones and other airstrikes target militants but cost many civilian lives, it turns people against the United States. One month ago, President Obama unveiled an Afghan-Pakistan strategy for stabilizing the region, and yet things have gotten so much worse in the weeks since that now he, British officials and other world leaders openly fear the Talibanization of nuclear-armed Pakistan.
A furious Pakistan government accuses the United States of sowing panic among the people and insists it's in full control of its country and its nuclear arsenal. But it is hard to overdramatize the danger as this U.S. ally concedes land and appeases the Taliban, then watches as it reneges on a so-called "peace deal" and rolls ever closer to the capital, Islamabad. On May 6 and 7, Obama will be meeting in Washington with the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the fight to deny the militants a tipping point momentum, the military tells me 2009 will be crucial.
As for Iran, which even two years ago candidate Obama said would be directly engaged by his administration, there is nothing formal yet between the two sides.
After 30 years of enmity, President Obama offered Iran "the promise of a new beginning" in a Persian New Year video message, and since then has clearly signaled the United States was over regime-change. The Iranian government and leadership have responded in kind, saying they are ready to engage with America if the administration is really committed to changing its Iran policy.
However, much of this good will has been over the airwaves and direct or back-channel talks have yet to start. Into this vacuum are stepping all the sundry pro- and anti-Iran interest groups, experts, analysts and nations, with their often-conflicting advice and sometimes confused understanding. Yet it is widely acknowledged that a strategic realignment with Iran would benefit U.S. and regional security and stability.
The new Israeli government wants to see no such thing, and wants people to believe it will bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, a belief it fosters with background briefings to journalists in the United States and presumably elsewhere. In an ironic twist, Israel's Arab neighbors are bringing their dire warnings about Iran to the White House.
Meantime, Obama has named a new Middle East Peace envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, signaling he wants to take negotiations out of the deep freeze and committing to the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. Trouble is new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not signed on to the two-state solution and is trying to fend off this pressure, even suggesting Israel won't engage with the Palestinians until the United States takes care of Iran.
Last week, Obama told Jordan's King Hussein at the White House, "My hope would be that over the next several months you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides." He added, "We can't talk forever; at some point, steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground." The president has invited the leaders of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to the White House in coming weeks.
The second hundred days in foreign policy will be filled with mini-summits at the White House and major summits abroad -- Russia in July and China sometime later.
With all this activity, Obama is clearly shifting the United States away from the "isolate and punish" policy of his predecessor. He is signaling that clearheaded meetings to discuss issues of mutual concern are better than hiding your head in the sand and hoping they'll go away. So amid the frothing and fulminating over Fidel, Hugo and Mahmoud, remember Nixon went to China

White House apologizes for low-flying plane

A White House official apologized Monday after a low-flying Boeing 747 spotted above the Manhattan skyline frightened workers and residents into evacuating buildings. The huge aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot, the Federal Aviation Administration said. "Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," said Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption."

Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty.
Bay near the Statue before flying up the Hudson iver. It was accompanied by two F-16s. The White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight, which sparked fear in the New York-New Jersey area. "The president was furious about it," one of the officials said. The incident outraged many New Yorkers, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "First thing is, I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told," he said, calling the aviation administration's decision to withhold details about the flight "ridiculous" and "poor judgment."
"Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination," he said. "Had we known, I would have asked them not to."

"I was here on 9/11," said iReporter Tom Kruk, who spotted the plane as he was getting coffee Monday morning and snapped a photo. Kruk called the sight of the aircraft low in the sky "unsettling." Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office just three blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood, called the flight an "absolute travesty." There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us," she said. "I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack."Garcia-Rose, who works with nearly two dozen post-traumatic stress disorder patients ages 15 to 47, said she was inundated with phone calls from patients Monday morning.

The aircraft, used to transport the president, was escorted by two military fighter aircraft.
"They're traumatized. They're asking 'How could this happen?' They're nervous. Their anxiety levels are high," she said. Garcia-Rose is considering filing a class-action suit against the government for sanctioning the plane's unannounced flight. "I believe the government has done something really wrong," she said.
Capt. Anna Carpenter of Andrews Air Force Base said local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Aviation Administration had been given notice of the exercise.
New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted to the flight by the federal agency "with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it." Sen. Chuck Schumer echoed the mayor's sentiments in a separate news conference Monday afternoon, saying the Federal Aviation Administration should have notified the public to avoid panic.

A New York police official says the department had been alerted about the flight.

It is absolutely outrageous and appalling to think that the FAA would plan such a photo shoot and not warn the public, knowing full well New Yorkers still have the vivid memory of 9/11 sketched in their minds," the New York Democrat said. Schumer said the FAA's decision to not announce the fly-by "really borders on being either cruel or very very stupid.Building evacuations also took place across the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey

Facebook seeks to export its network across the Web

Facebook regularly attracts more than 200 million people to its website, but the company is now looking for ways to permeate the lives of its users without the need to check-in to the Facebook site.
The Palo Alto, California company unveiled tools on Monday that allow third-party Web developers to harness the wealth of content generated by Facebook users and to build new online products and services.
Facebook said in a blog post announcing the so-called Open Stream API that Facebook's user-generated content could ultimately be available in a variety of places, from new online services that do not require a Web browser to specialized cell phone applications.
"In the coming months, you'll be able to interact with your stream on even more websites and through more applications, in ways we're only beginning to imagine," Facebook engineer Justin Bishop wrote on the Facebook blog.
The latest move represents Facebook's most significant effort to export its content across the Web and comes as Facebook continues to struggle to parlay the massive traffic on its website into meaningful revenue.
"The overall goal for Facebook is to be the platform for connecting, whether it be on Facebook or outside Facebook. So I think having both strategies is pretty smart," said IDC analyst Caroline Dangson.
Dangson says Facebook could eventually create an advertising network by forging revenue-sharing agreements with companies that build products based on content from Facebook users.
As a private company, Facebook does not disclose its financial information. Some media reports have projected that Facebook's revenue could range between $400 million and $500 million this year.
The two most popular U.S. online properties, Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, generated $5.5 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively, in the first quarter alone.
Facebook has increasingly positioned the news stream -- the barrage of status messages, photos and videos that users post for viewing by their network of friends -- as the centerpiece of its service. Last month, the company redesigned its homepage, giving the news stream much greater prominence.
Allowing other companies to leverage the news stream takes a page from the playbook of microblogging start-up Twitter, which has fostered a growing network of innovative websites and services based on the content generated by Twitter users.
Facebook will be hosting a small event for developers at its headquarters later on Monday to brief them on the Open Stream API

U.S.,swine flu alert level

The World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert level in response to the outbreak of swine flu that originated in Mexico.

The move to a level four alert indicates the world body has determined the virus is capable of significant human-to-human transmission.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general, said the move did not mean a pandemic was inevitable. He added the agency would focus efforts on mitigating, rather than containing, the virus. Fukuda said it was too early to predict whether there will be a mild or serious pandemic.

Relatives of flu patients wait outside Mexico's National Institute of Respiratory Diseases.

More cases were confirmed Monday in the United States, Canada and Europe. The WHO said the U.S. has confirmed 47 cases, Mexico 26, Canada six and Spain one. Two more were confirmed in Scotland. In Mexico the virus is believed to be responsible for at least 149 deaths -- though most of those have not yet been confirmed -- while almost 2,000 have been hospitalized. Some health experts fear the disease could become a pandemic, partly because it has killed young, healthy adults in Mexico. Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said, "The number of cases, unfortunately, will continue to increase.

Mexico closed all schools until at least May 6 to help curb the spread of swine flu, officials announced Monday.
A U.S. federal official confirmed the U.S. figure -- up from 20 with all the new cases coming from a New York school where eight cases were previously confirmed.U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday that the outbreak was a "cause for concern" but not a "cause for alarm."
He said the federal government was "closely monitoring" emerging cases and had declared a public health emergency as a "precautionary tool" to ensure the availability of adequate resources to combat the spread of the virus.
Health Library :MayoClinic.com: Influenza (flu)
Israel and New Zealand, where 22 students and three teachers were quarantined after returning for a three-week trip to Mexico, are also investigating suspected cases. South Korea says it will test travelers arriving from the U.S.

A security guard at the Spanish hospital where a man is being treated

Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that usually affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions.
When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can continue to mutate, making it harder to treat or fight off because people have no natural immunity.
The symptoms are similar to common flu. They include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

The virus spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes around another person. People can become infected by touching something with the flu virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes.
In 1968, a "Hong Kong" flu pandemic killed about 1 million people worldwide. And in 1918, a "Spanish" flu pandemic killed as many as 100 million people
Dr. Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, said only one of the U.S. cases has been hospitalized, and all have recovered.
The European Union's health commissioner Monday urged people "to avoid non-essential travel to the areas which are reported to be in the center of the clusters" of a swine flu outbreak.
Andorra Vassiliou's latest comments soften an earlier statement urging people "to avoid traveling to both Mexico and the United States due to concerns about swine flu."

The EU issued a statement clarifying that Vassiliou's remarks were her personal comments and that travel advisories can be issued only by member states and not by the EU itself.
The first case of swine flu in Europe was confirmed Monday in Spain. Health minister Trinidad Jimenez said a 23-year-old man who returned from studying in Mexico last Wednesday tested positive for the virus at a hospital in the country's southeast.
At least 16 more cases are being treated as possible swine flu, Jimenez told a news conference. Earlier, Jimenez met with health officials to discuss Spain's response to the crisis.

"We do not have an emergency situation in Spain, but we are working to prevent any possible development, and we are taking action in accord with the World Health Organization," she said.
Spain's Ministry of Health has urged travelers recently returned from Mexico and the U.S. to be on the lookout for symptoms of the virus, including fever, coughing and respiratory problems.
A few hours later, Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said, "Tests have demonstrated conclusively that the two Scottish cases of swine flu are positive."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "We are concerned that this virus could cause a new influenza pandemic. It could be mild, in its effects, or potentially be severe. We do not yet know which way it will go. But we are concerned that, in Mexico, most of those who died were young and healthy adults.
Dr. Besser, of the CDC, said the EU warning was "not warranted

controversy of Swine flu creates on Twitter

The swine flu outbreak is spawning debate about how people get information during health emergencies -- especially at a time when news sources are becoming less centralized.

Some observers say Twitter -- a micro-blogging site where users post 140-character messages -- has become a hotbed of unnecessary hype and misinformation about the outbreak, which is thought to have claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico.

Buzz about swine flu on Twitter is stirring conversations about how people get health news.
"This is a good example of why [Twitter is] headed in that wrong direction, because it's just propagating fear amongst people as opposed to seeking actual solutions or key information," said Brennon Slattery, a contributing writer for PC World. "The swine flu thing came really at the crux of a media revolution."
Twitter's popularity has exploded in recent months, and Slattery said it's a new development that a wide number of people would turn to the site in search of information during an emergency.
Others take a softer approach to the buzz on Twitter.
Writing for CNET, a CNN partner site, Larry Magid advises online readers to take medical advice with a grain of salt.
The Internet is "a great way to get general information, prevention tips and information on how to handle a known condition, but be cautious when using it to try to diagnose yourself," he writes.

Several dozen cases of swine flu worldwide have been confirmed by the World Health Organization and hundreds more are feared.

That information needs to be put in context by journalists, especially given the fact that so many deaths from the common flu occur each year and go underreported by the news media, said Al Tompkins, who teaches broadcast and online news at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists.
About 36,000 people die from flu-related symptoms each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
The fast pace of new swine flu cases and their relevance to global public health policy makes the situation newsworthy, Tompkins said.
Tompkins said there is a tendency for television stations to hype health emergencies to boost their ratings, but so far coverage of the swine flu outbreak has been responsible. Coverage of the story is just ramping up, though, he said.
Of the swine flu news on Twitter, Tompkins said, "Bad news always travels faster than good news. I'm sure that was true in smoke signal days."
Unofficial swine flu information on Twitter may lead people to unwise decisions, said Evgeny Morozov, a fellow at the Open Society Institute and a blogger on ForeignPolicy.com.
For example, some Twitter users told their followers to stop eating pork, he said. Health officials have not advised that precaution.

Morozov said there's incentive for Twitter users to post whatever is on their mind because it helps them grow their online audiences.
But in an emergency, that tendency means people write about their own fears of symptoms and widespread deaths, which can create an uninformed hysteria, he said.
The debate about swine flu on Twitter is not one-sided, however. And the site is not the only place online where people are talking about the outbreak.
Some Twitter users have expressed concern that the swine flu story is being hyped. Several media outlets, including the BBC and CNN's iReport.com, give readers and viewers a chance to express their own views about the outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also maintains its own Twitter account where official government information is given straight to the public.
And on Monday, President Obama seemed to try to calm national fears by saying the outbreak is "cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert" but is not a "cause for alarm," CNN reported.
Twitter traffic about swine flu has been strong. According to Nielsen Online, swine flu has worked its way into about 2 percent of all notes posted on the site on Monday. You can follow that Twitter conversation here.
Chatter about swine flu is also loud elsewhere online. About 10 times more people are writing online about swine flu than wrote about the salmonella and peanut butter scares from this winter, Nielsen says.
On Google, an interactive map lets Internet users see where outbreak deaths have been confirmed and where they are suspected.

Slattery, the PC World writer, said he generally was excited about Twitter until recently. Now he finds the site to be "an incredibly unreliable source of information."
Tompkins said people who post information on social media sites should think about the credibility of their sources before they pass something on.

U.S. swine flu case unbelievable numbers rise; Possible to more

More than 40 people in five states have been sickened by new strain of swine flu that doctors fear may cause a pandemic, U.S. officials said on Monday, promising more cases to come.
Schools were ordered closed in California and Texas, while nervous investors sent U.S. stock prices tumbling on expectations that the flu outbreak could further undermine the economy, which is struggling in recession.
President Barack Obama said he was monitoring the situation while bad news piled up from southern neighbor Mexico, where up to 149 people have died and more than 1,600 have been infected by the never-before-seen virus.
The U.S. government on Sunday declared the flu strain a public health emergency -- a fresh challenge for the Obama administration, which is still mindful of the damage inflicted on his predecessor George W. Bush over his government's inept handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. No American deaths have been reported and most affected by the virus had light symptoms, recovering fast. But it has popped up in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California as well as Canada and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic.
"This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened state of alert. But it is not a cause for alarm," Obama told a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.
In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said more than 100 sick students at a high school in Queens were being tested and that 45 were confirmed or likely cases of swine flu.
"We believe that there are probably more than 100 cases of swine flu at the school and lab tests are confirming what we have suspected," he told a news conference.
A first case was confirmed in northern California, where a student was found with the virus at a school in a Sacramento suburb. The school was closed. Ten other cases have been confirmed in southern California close to Mexico's border.
Texas, meanwhile, confirmed a third case of swine flu near San Antonio. All three cases involve students at the same school, and Texas officials have closed 14 area schools in an attempt to contain it.
Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said inspections were being boosted at U.S. borders and airports, while the national stockpile of antiviral drugs was being activated and should be fully deployed by May 3.
The U.S. State Department urged Americans on Monday to avoid all "nonessential" travel to Mexico over the next three months because of the flu outbreak.
NO HEALTH SECRETARY
The flu scare comes as the Obama administration seeks to fill a number of senior health vacancies.
Obama's choice for health secretary, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, has not yet been approved by the Senate where some Republicans are upset over her support for abortion rights, but Democrats hope Sibelius will get the nod soon.

Obama end banks’ role in federal student loans

Just as they’re catching flak for everything from the global financial crisis to high credit card interest rates, along comes the president and adds another grievance. Barack Obama, it seems, thinks using banks to dole out federal college loan funds is a waste of taxpayer money.

So on Friday he discussed his scheme to boost the flow of federal dollars to those looking to get a higher education. To pay for it, he said, “we’re going to eliminate waste, reduce inefficiency and cut what we don’t need to pay for what we do.” Look out banks. Obama said there are two kinds of federal education loans — direct loans and Federal Family Education Loans. Under direct loans, tax dollars go directly to help students pay for tuition, “not to pad the profits of private lenders,” he said. But under the FFEL program, “taxpayers are paying banks a premium to act as middlemen — a premium that costs the American people billions of dollars each year,” he added.
The loans are federally backed, so the banks don’t even have to take on significant risk. Cutting out the middleman, Obama said, could save the government tens of billions of dollars that it could use to help more students. But making that change won’t be easy, he said. “The banks and the lenders who have reaped a windfall from these subsidies have mobilized an army of lobbyists to try to keep things the way they are.” “They are gearing up for battle. So am I,” Obama said. “For those who care about America’s future, this is a battle we can’t afford to lose.

Alert on human swine flu-afflicted states

Over 100 persons have died in Mexico from the human swine influenza outbreak, while neighboring United States has reported a few confirmed cases.
Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said in a press conference there is no travel ban to the affected countries, but a health alert has been issued to travelers going to and coming from Mexico and the US.
"There is no travel ban but we are asking travelers to reconsider travel to Mexico and United States," said Mr. Duque.
As this developed, the government might issue a temporary ban on imports of pork and pork products from Canada following reports of human swine flu infection in that country, an Agriculture official said yesterday.
"We can include Canada [in the import ban] if we confirm the reports of swine influenza. We will recommend it to [Agriculture] Secretary [Arthur C. Yap]," Davinio P. Catbagan, director of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), told reporters in a separate briefing.
Mr. Catbagan said they are verifying if the World Organization for Animal Health will advise a ban on the shipment of pork and pork products from Canada.
Mr. Yap has issued a ban on imports from the US and Mexico on Saturday even if the country does not buy products from Mexico.
The swine flu is a new strain of influenza that can cause rapid deterioration in humans, even death in three to five days. The virus’s incubation is from four to 10 days.
Mr. Duque said the Philippines has enough medicine to treat symptoms of the flu-like virus due to the stockpiling of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu during the outbreak of avian influenza in 2003. But he admitted the World Health Organization has yet to come up with a vaccine against the new lethal strain.
The DoH has recommended for the public to adopt precautionary measures to contain a possible spread of the virus such as covering the nose and mouth while coughing, regular washing of hands and avoiding close contact with sick people.
In the same press conference, Dr. Enrique A. Tayag, director of the National Epidemiology Center, said the virus is not yet in the country. "The strain is entirely new so we don’t know much about it. We are awaiting some updates from the World Health Organization (WHO)."
He added the Department of Health will be swabbing patients showing symptoms of the swine flu for WHO testing.
Despite the precautions, the department said social distancing is not needed. "There is no need to result to social distancing yet because we are not yet sure if the disease is here," said Mr. Duque.
The DoH has asked those experiencing fever, coughing, followed by vomiting or diarrhea to immediately contact the department for quarantine in the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it has not yet received reports of Filipinos in Mexico who have been afflicted with the swine flu.
There are around 300 Filipinos living in Mexico, including 21 permanent residents, as of June 2008.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban B. Conejos, Jr. yesterday said overseas Filipinos suspected to have contracted the disease must immediately contact health authorities and the Philippine embassy.
The outbreak, described by WHO as a possible pandemic risk, has reportedly infected 1,614 people. Six cases of the swine flu were recorded in Canada and 20 in the US.

1976: Fear of a great plague

On the cold afternoon of February 5, 1976, an Army recruit told his drill instructor at Fort Dix that he felt tired and weak but not sick enough to see military medics or skip a big training hike.Within 24 hours, 19-year-old Pvt. David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Mass., was dead, killed by an influenza not seen since the plague of 1918-19, which took 500,000 American lives and 20 million worldwide. Two weeks after the recruit's death, health officials disclosed to America that something called "swine flu" had killed Lewis and hospitalized four of his fellow soldiers at the Army base in Burlington County.The ominous name of the flu alone was enough to touch off civilian fear of an epidemic. And government doctors knew from tests hastily conducted at Dix after Lewis' death that 500 soldiers had caught swine flu without falling ill.Any flu able to reach that many people so fast was capable of becoming another worldwide plague, the doctors warned, raising these questions:Does America mobilize for mass inoculations in time to have everybody ready for the next flu season? Or should the country wait to see if the new virus would, as they often do, get stronger to hit harder in the second year?Thus was born what would become known to some medical historians as a fiasco and to others as perhaps the finest hour of America's public health bureaucracy.Only young Lewis died from the swine flu itself in 1976. But as the critics are quick to point out, hundreds of Americans were killed or seriously injured by the inoculation the government gave them to stave off the virus.According to his sister-in-law, John Kent of President Avenue in Lawrence went to his grave in 1997 believing the shot from the government had killed his first wife, Mary, long before her time.Among other critics are Arthur M. Silverstein, whose book, "Pure Politics and Impure Science," suggests President Gerald Ford's desire to win the office on his own, as well as the influence of America's big drug manufacturers, figured into the decision to immunize all 220 million Americans.Still, even the partisan who first branded Ford's program a fiasco, says now that it happened because America's public health establishment identified what easily could have been a new plague and mobilized to beat it amazingly well.To understand the fear of the time you have to know something about the plague American soldiers seemed to bring home with them after fighting in Europe during World War I.The Great Plague, as it came to be called, rivaled the horrid Black Death of medieval times in its ability to strike suddenly and take lives swiftly. In addition to the half million in America, it killed 20 million people around the world.It got its name because it was a brand of flu usually found in domestic pigs and wild swine. It was long thought to have come, like so many flus, out of the Chinese farm country, where people and domestic pigs live closely together.Recent research has shown, however, that the post-WWI flu was brought to Europe by American troops who had been based in the South before they went to war. Medical detectives, still working on the case in the 1990s, determined that a small group of our soldiers took swine flu to Europe and that it spread to the world from there.How the swine flu got to Fort Dix in 1976 still hasn't been tracked down. At the time, Dix military doctors knew only that a killer flu had made it to the base and that they were lucky more men hadn't died or been sickened seriously.Weeks after Lewis died, doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and other federal public health officials were meeting in Washington, trying to decide if they should recommend the government start a costly program of mass inoculations. One doc later told the authors of "The Epidemic that Never Was" that he and others in on the meetings realized there was "nothing in this for the CDC except trouble," especially because a decision had to be made fast to get the immunizations manufactured by the fall."...The obvious thing to do was immunize everybody," the doctor said. "But if we tried to do that ... we might have to interrupt a hell of a lot of work on other diseases."The doctors knew they faced complaints if the epidemic broke out and vaccines weren't ready, as well as criticism if they spent millions inoculating people for a plague that didn't happen."As for 'another 1918,' 1 didn't expect that," the doctor continued in the book. "But who could be sure? It would wreck us. Yet, if there weren't a pandemic, we'd be charged with wasting public money, crying wolf and causing all the inconvenience for nothing ... It was a no-win situation."By mid-March, CDC Director Dr. David J. Sencer had lined up most of the medical establishment behind his plan to call on Ford to support a $135 million program of mass inoculation.On March 24, one day after a surprise loss to Ronald Reagan in the North Carolina Republican presidential primary, Ford decided to make the announcement to the American public.Congress still had to appropriate the money, of course, and that wasn't going to be easy. Even before official congressional consideration of the plan was taken up, there were forces arguing against it.Another big hurdle was the drug makers, who were insisting the government take liability for any harmful side effects from the vaccine. During congressional hearings in the spring and early summer, lawmakers heard some naysayers who noted that the swine flu of last winter never got beyond Dix and that only one death had been reported.The president and his experts prevailed, however, and on Aug. 12 Congress put up the money to get the job done. The mighty task was put into the hands of a charismatic 33-year-old physician for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Dr. W. Delano Meriwether, a world-class sprinter who still competed in track meets.Now he was in a race for life, or so he thought. Meriwether was given until the end of the year to get all 220 million Americans inoculated against swine flu.By Oct. 1, the makers had the serums ready and America's public health bureaucracy had lined up thousands of doctors, nurses and paramedics to give out the shots at medical centers, schools and firehouses across the nation.Jim Florio, then an ambitious rookie Democratic congressman supporting Jimmy Carter for president, didn't use the situation to take a shot at Ford. He lined up and was the first Jersey resident to take the inoculation.Within days, however, several people who had taken the shot fell seriously ill. On Oct. 12, three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot, which led to suspension of the program in Pennsylvania.Jersey pressed on with inoculations, however. Through the fall, even as more bad reports about the side effects of the vaccine came out, thousands of mostly older people in Greater Trenton lined up outside health centers, schools and firehouses to get the shot, sometimes waiting for an hour.One of them was Lawrence's Mary Kent, a 45-year-old mother of two teenage boys who couldn't tie the ribbons on Christmas presents only days after she got her shot at the Trenton War Memorial in early December.On Dec. 16, increasingly concerned about reports of the vaccine touching off neurological problems, especially rare Guillain-Barre syndrome, the government suspended the program, having inoculated 40 million people for a flu that never came.By year's end, Jack Kent knew his wife was seriously ill and started reading all about the side effects of the president's flu inoculation, especially nerve problems like those his wife was experiencing.Even before Mary Kent died an invalid at age 51 in January 1982, Kent had joined the hundreds of Americans who filed suit against the government on behalf of children left without a parent due to fatal side effects from the swine flu vaccine.Kent's sister-in-law, also named Mary Kent, recalled the other day that Jack Kent died in 1997 still angrily blaming the government for giving his wife Guillian-Barre, leading to her death.The swine flu case of 1976 forever reduced confidence in public health pronouncements from the government and helped foster cynicism about federal policy makers that continues to this day.Citing the swine flu fiasco, for instance, one scholar recently authored a report suggesting the threat of AIDS has been similarly overblown.Yet Joseph Califano, one of the earliest to use the word "fiasco" in describing the swine flu affair, came to the conclusion that it all couldn't have been avoided. Califano, whom President Carter appointed Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare after beating Ford in the November election, said the doctors had no choice but to err on the side of the caution.In "The Epidemic That Never Was," Califano said that faced with the threat of another killer plague with the potential to end millions of lives, the doctors were right to seek an inoculation program.

U.S. tries to get a handle on flu outbreak

The United States declared a public health emergency on Sunday because of an outbreak of swine flu that has infected 20 people across the country and is suspected of killing up to 81 people in Mexico.
Health and security officials announced steps to release some of the U.S. stockpiles of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. They recommended that local authorities plan for possible school closures and that anyone with symptoms stay at home to reduce the possibility of spreading the illness.
The outbreak is yet another distraction for President Barack Obama as he focuses on rescuing the economy from its worst crisis in decades. His administration will also be mindful of the damage to former President George W. Bush over his government's inept handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
. "At this point, a top priority is to ensure that communication is robust and that medical surveillance efforts are fully activated," John Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security, told a White House briefing.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a separate briefing she feared that as health officials searched for evidence of the virus, they would discover some people who have died from it.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said it was too early to say what impact the outbreak could have on efforts to get the economy back on its feet. Spiraling healthcare costs are already a huge drain on the economy.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the declaration of the public health emergency was necessary to free federal, state and local agencies' resources and authorize the release of funds to buy more antivirals.
The declaration allows health officials to use experimental drugs and tests more liberally, but does not give the federal government extra quarantine powers and does not affect travel or trade.
"This is standard operating procedure," Napolitano stressed, adding that similar declarations had been issued in the past to help states cope with flooding or hurricanes.
CASES MILD
The CDC confirmed 20 cases of swine flu on both coasts and in the heartland states of Kansas and Ohio, but said all the patients had recovered and only one person had to be hospitalized. Officials said they were not testing air travelers from Mexico for the virus.
The CDC is preparing a "yellow card" for travelers explaining the flu symptoms and what precautions to take, Schuchat said. U.S. health officials are stressing frequent hand washing as the first line of defense against the virus.
Tests so far show that the H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against the new H1N1 swine flu strain, Schuchat said. It could take several months to develop a vaccine for the new virus, she added.

CDC acting Director Dr. Richard Besser said it was not yet clear why the flu did not appear to be killing people in the United States when it had in Mexico. "We expect to see more cases of swine flu. As we continue to look for cases, we expect that we will find them," Besser said.

Napolitano said the United States would release 25 percent of the 50 million anti-flu drugs from the strategic national stockpile. The Department of Defense has also bought 7 million courses of Tamiflu for defense personnel, she said.
Tamiflu, a pill made by Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc, and GlaxoSmithKline's and Biota's Relenza, an inhaled drug, can treat influenza if given quickly. They have been shown to work against this new flu strain.
Gibbs said Obama, who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, had shown no symptoms of the virus and had therefore not been tested.
(Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Donna Smith and Maggie Fox; editing by Eric Beech and Philip Barbara)

Obama's Second 100 days will be bigger test

As introductions go, it has been a fast-paced, fascinating first 100 days: an ambitious domestic agenda aimed at reinvigorating the economy and the government's reach into its workings, and several provocative steps on the world stage that, like at home, signal a clear break from the previous administration.

John King talks with President Obama in Peoria, Illinois.
It is the second 100 days that will give a much more comprehensive test of President Obama's approach, his resilience -- and his effectiveness.
Still, the White House cites significant accomplishments, including:
• Passage of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
• Signing into law an expanded children's health care program that it says provides benefits to 4 million additional working families.
• Signing the Ledbetter law requiring equal pay for women.
• Winning approval of a congressional budget resolution that puts Congress on record as dedicated to dealing with major health care reform legislation this year.
• Implementing new ethics guidelines designed to significantly curtail the influence of lobbyists on the executive branch.
• Breaking from the Bush administration on a number of international policy fronts, including climate change, while spelling out his plan to withdraw American troops from Iraq.
By the numbers, it is hard to not judge it as a strong start politically: The American people, for the most part, like their new president and see him as a leader. Nearly six in 10 Americans approve of how Obama is handling the economy, and hardly any blame the president for the country's economic struggles and challenges.

"I mean, it was basically left to him, you know. He didn't really do it, in my opinion," is what Chris Guynn told us when we visited him in Peoria, Illinois, just as he was told by Caterpillar that his job was being eliminated.
"But it's his problem now," Guynn said of Obama. It's a reminder that although he has broad public support and considerable patience from most Americans at the moment, Obama's political standing over time will be closely intertwined with the strength of the economy.
There are some warning signs found in the numbers and found repeatedly in our travels these past 100 days to 17 states and a diverse mix of communities, from rural Vermont and suburban New Jersey to the critical emerging battleground states of the South and Southwest.

Three to consider:
• Obama is perceived as a liberal, a word that is often more a liability than an asset in national politics.
• Nearly four in 10 Americans voice the concern that he is trying too much at once.
At our recent diner conversation in Park Ridge, New Jersey, teacher Peter Fitzgerald put it this way: "I would kind of worry about him burning out, too, because he's doing so much. Any time you look at the news, President Obama's doing this, he's got a million things going on. I understand that you have to attack the issues that are going on here, but I wonder some times if they are a little fearful he is going to run out of gas."
• If there are a few major stumbles and setbacks, the risk is that voters will question his leadership and governing skills.
"Keep an eye on this," veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart noted.
His core supporters are wary of two major Obama initiatives: taxpayer-funded bailout of big financial and auto companies, and his plan to significantly increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan.
Several mayors we have visited in the past few months also grumble a bit that stimulus money is slow to trickle through the bureaucracy.
"So far, I haven't seen any of the stimulus money," Las Vegas, Nevada, Mayor Oscar Goodman said at his office this week. "I am told that we are going to get it. I think it will probably help us with our transportation. ... But we need it right now, because what we have to do is, we have to create jobs so that folks will be able to pay their mortgages and not lose their homes and be able to feed their families."

Asked to give Obama a grade at the 100-day mark, Goodman was for the most part complimentary.
"You've got to give credit where it's due, and I think that the president has been very aggressive in the programs that he is suggesting," the mayor said.
The assessments from more conservative quarters are, not surprisingly, very different.
Sen. John McCain, a rival in the presidential race, says Obama has not sought out genuine bipartisanship, a sentiment echoed by the Senate and House Republican leadership teams.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney infuriated the Obama White House with his assertion on "State of the Union" that Obama changes to Bush anti-terrorism policies have made the American people less safe.
And that debate continues to echo in squabbling over the release of Bush-era memos written to justify harsh interrogation tactics and the debate over whether some independent commission should be named to explore whether laws were broken in the prior administration.
Looking at the Obama domestic agenda, conservative columnist David Brooks framed things this way in a recent column in The New York Times:
"If Republicans aren't nervous, they should be. Obama is arguing for his activist agenda not on the basis of class consciousness, which is alien to America, but as a defense of middle-class morality, which is central to it. Obama is positioning the Democrats as the party of order, responsibility and small town values. If he pulls this mantle away from the Republicans, it would be the greatest train robbery in American politics."
The second 100 days will be a critical test of Obama's agenda and, if you agree with the framing of the stakes provided by Brooks, an equally important period for his critics.
Consider two of the big issues front and center in the next phase:
• Will Americans view health care reform as Obama argues: an overdue moral imperative that requires forceful government action and a strong government hand in reorganizing the marketplace? Or will critics succeed, as they did when the Clinton health care push went off the rails in 1993-94, in framing the argument as too expensive, too powerful government reach into the most personal of our affairs?
• Can Obama sell a new energy and environmental approach that includes more government efficiency and emission mandates as a generational calling and national security necessity? Or will opponents sway the debate by warning that the end result is higher energy taxes on working- and middle-class households, and choking mandates that will undermine U.S. manufacturers in the competitive global economy?
There are many other challenges that are opportunities for Obama to advance his agenda and redefine his party as well as the United States image on the world stage. But several of these opportunities could also emerge as tripwires.
Iraq and Afghanistan are inherited tests. But Obama has placed such a heavy fingerprint on these policies that success will bring him credit, but setbacks will leave no doubt where the responsibility lies.
Likewise, overtures to Iran, Cuba and Venezuela put to the test Obama's bold campaign promise to give dialogue a chance even, perhaps especially, with those nations with whom U.S. relations had turned most stagnated or contentious.

Blaming George W. Bush was an easy -- and often credible -- foil for Obama in his important first 100 days.
Not so much in the defining second 100.

Inside View of White House get by official photographer

It's early April, and President Obama is on his way to France with the nation's top diplomat at his side. As he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton converse in a private room aboard Air Force One, a photographer peers through the half-open door and snaps a candid picture of the formerly bitter campaign rivals.

Photographing two of the most powerful people in the country up-close and personal may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to most Americans. But for photographer Pete Souza, it's a common occurrence.

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton share a conversation on board Air Force One.
"I try to photograph everything. Every meeting that the president does," Souza told CNN's John King on "State of the Union."
On leave of absence from his normal post as an assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, Souza is the chief official White House photographer for President Obama, meaning he has an all-access pass to the president's most intimate and private moments.
"I look at my job as a visual historian," Souza said on Sunday. "The most important thing is to create a good visual archive for history, so 50 or a hundred years from now, people can go back and look at all these pictures."

While he relishes his unobstructed seat to a historic administration, he knows his limits.

"I'm smart enough to know that if he's having a one-on-one meeting with a head of state, I let them have some privacy," he said. "I let him initiate any conversation. I am not there to take up his time in conversation."
Souza brings a unique perspective to the job, having also been the official White House photographer during Ronald Reagan's presidency. He acknowledged that Reagan was probably more formal, but told CNN he sees similarities between the two.

"I think they're both comfortable with themselves, which makes them great photographic subjects. The presence of the camera in behind-the-scene situations didn't seem to bother either president, which is good for me," he said.
Souza released four never-before-seen photos on "State of the Union," including one of the president and the first lady sharing a moment on the dance floor at the annual Governor's Ball, the couple's first big event at the White House.

"Earth, Wind and Fire was the band and I think the president was singing along to the music. I think their intention is to bring some fun to the White House, too," Souza said while reflecting on the picture.
Previously a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, Souza began documenting Obama's ascension to the presidency in 2004 after a former colleague asked him to shoot the young politician's first year as a U.S. senator. Last year, Souza published "The Rise of Barack Obama," an extensive book of photos chronicling Obama's rise from junior senator of Illinois to the highest office in the country.
When asked to choose one picture as his favorite, Souza selected one of the president and first lady softly butting heads in a freight elevator, surrounded by staffers who appear to be avoiding eye contact with the couple. Michelle Obama is smiling playfully wearing her husband's jacket.
"I chose this one because it's a genuine moment. It was chilly in the elevator. He took his coat off, put it around his wife's shoulders and then there is this private moment going on between the two of them," he said. "It's just a complete storytelling picture."

Though the historic nature of Obama's presidency is not lost on Souza, he doesn't view Obama any differently than past commanders in chief.
"Certainly you feel a sense of history, no question about that. When I look at him, I look at him as the president. I don't look at him as the African-American president, I look at him as the president."