Word: flu
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When the U.S. sneezes, Mexico catches a cold - so goes the old saying that is ironically being turned on its head as all eyes look south, afraid that the U.S. may be infected by what appears to be Mexican swine flu. But while public health and government officials on both sides of the border battle the outbreak, a virus of another sort is spreading across the Internet as anti-immigration groups use the imminent flu pandemic as an argument for closing the U.S.-Mexico border...
...chorus, sending out a barrage of e-mails to supporters and engaging in Web chatter about the perceived threats from Mexico. The push has gained some traction in Washington, while being rejected, thus far, by the Administration. "The public needs to be aware of the serious threat of swine flu, and we need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved," New York Democratic Congressman Eric Massa, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said earlier this week. Across the aisle, San Diego Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter suggested that all nonessential border traffic be shut...
...there is little attention paid to the goods that flow both ways: wheat (vital for production of the Mexican staple, tortillas) and other food commodities head south, while assembled goods made from U.S. components head back north. In that mix are some products that could be essential if the flu spreads. Dr. Carlos del Rio, chairman of the global health department at Emory University, wrote in a CNN op-ed, "In the event of a serious flu outbreak in this country, there would be a need for mechanical-ventilator deployments to hospitals. The national stockpile has sufficient ventilators...
Before the flu epidemic emerged, both sides of the border were feeling the economic downturn - and the ripple effect was moving farther north. Phillips says the manager of a large outlet mall in San Marcos, 200 miles north of Laredo, Texas, told him that sales were down over the Easter holiday, traditionally a popular shopping time for Mexican tourists in Texas. But that slowdown would pale beside the impact of a border shutdown. (See a video of protests against building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border...
...first known flu fatality on the U.S. side of the border is emblematic of the problem posed by the symbiotic relationship. The 22-month-old boy who died of the flu in a Houston hospital had flown from Mexico City to Matamoros to visit relatives across the bridge in Brownsville. Many families, Phillips points out, have one foot in both countries. Managers for Mexican industrial plants on the border often live north of the river, while workers in the plants have family ties deeper inside Mexico and frequently head south...