Today Secretary Napolitano said

Our focus at this time is not on closing the border or conducting exit screenings. It is on mitigation. Travelers presenting symptoms, if and when encountered, will be isolated and evaluated by a public health official. Customs and Border Protection is also handing out the CDC Traveler’s Health Alert notices in both English and Spanish to all travelers from Mexico.

Hey, at least the isolated detainees will have reading material. Who says we’re not humane? Informed….er…guess Janet missed Effect Measure this weekend:

Now for the zombie idea (promoted to some extent by WHO) that we could ever bottle up an incipient flu pandemic by containing it at the source. As we have pointed out here too many times to count, that never was in the cards for a disease that hides itself in the background noise of prevalent respiratory disease, is difficult to diagnose, and for which there is little good surveillance in most countries.

Even WHO figured out border controls won’t work

WHO says travel restrictions won’t stop the spread of the swine flu outbreak. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says experience from the 2003 SARS outbreak showed that travel restrictions resulted in more economic disruption than health gains. [h/t Abilene Reporter-News]

Meanwhile, back where the Lou Dobbs School of Public Health sets policy:

Napolitano said the US will begin isolating people arriving at airports and borders who exhibit flu-like symptoms.

Border health teams are now conducting passive surveillance at land, air and sea travel ports. Officials at the Mexican border, are pulling people aside showing flu symptoms until a determination can be made to allow them to enter the county or send them back home.

And in other news, Eric Massa still sucks racist votes

On Friday, Rep. Eric J.J. Massa (D), a freshman lawmaker from upstate New York, called for a complete closure of the border. He was joined Monday by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, a group that advocates for reduced immigration, which urged Congress to halt all but "non-essential traffic" at the border and the deployment of the U.S. military to stop illegal immigration.

Some epidemics nurture carrion-feeders.