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“We are working aggressively to slow swine flu in California.” Governor Schwarzenegger stated. He also said that the best minds are working on this issue and that they are monitoring it ‘minute-by-minute’. Schwarzenegger is getting daily briefings from local and federal agencies. “Bottom line, we are prepared.”
Schwarzenegger likens the swine flu outbreak to a call to action. Even though the state of California is at Level 3, the Governor is encouraging communication and cooperation at every level. Some of the steps Schwarzenegger has taken to protect the state are: activation of a joint emergency operations system, deployment of swine flu experts to Southern California, stock piling of antiviral medications in San Francisco at the state level, the CDC and the feds.
A pandemic of the swine flu would have very adverse economic impact on California. In particular the California tourism industry would take a tremendous hit. If people quit traveling due to swine flu scares San Francisco, LA, San Diego and Anaheim would all be negatively impacted. Even though, Governor Schwarzenegger reiterated that the focus should be on the safety of all people.
San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom reminded the people of California that this is “not a pandemic”. The number of people in California identified with the swine flu is very small even though the concerns are very large.
California has had 11 cases of swine flu confirmed so far. Most have been in the counties that border Mexico. However, the latest was a 7th grader in Sacramento County. Additionally, 11 suspected cases are currently being investigated in Santa Clara.
Arthur Andee Nast can be contacted at andeen@charter.net
Posted April 28th, 2009 by andeallen
