What do you do when a potentially pandemic strain of virus breaks out in a country bordering yours? ANSWER: You follow the example of Red China, Cuba, and Argentina.

After it was announced last week that a new strain of swine flu was sweeping Mexico, the Chinese, along with some other folks around the globe took appropriate action. They either (A) banned travel to and from Mexico, or (B) greatly discouraged travel to that country and added other countermeasures to help ensure containment within their own country.

My question is why aren’t we following suit? Here is the World Health Organization's (WHO) lame answer to that question:

From the AP: “…it's too late for that tactic…border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work”

How can WHO know that? I agree with them that it’s too late to contain the virus; it’s already in the U.S. But why make things worse by allowing potentially infected people to continue coming into our country? I don’t get that at all. How is it that Beijing of all places cares more about it’s people than Washington? This is just crazy. But wait; there’s more.

The “WHO is referring to the situation as a ‘public-health emergency of international concern.’ Some scientists have even gone on record to say that it’s only a matter of time before this virus gains pandemic status.

But my more immediate concern is our lack of an adequate response to this virus in light of not only its ramifications for the U.S., but of our knowledge about the virus’s source.

“…Only one American has been infected so far who had not recently traveled to Mexico – a woman in Kansas got sick after her husband returned from a business trip in that country, where he became ill…”

So we know this thing came from Mexico. We know that scores of people are both traveling to and from Mexico even as I hammer out this post. We know that these travelers are at risk for contracting and carrying this virus across our borders and infecting others, thereby speeding up the spread of this virus. Yet our borders remain open.

The only thing being done on the border now is a passive surveillance screening of people coming from Mexico into this country.

“Any traveler coming from a country with a confirmed human swine flu infection will be questioned, checked for symptoms and potentially isolated if they are found ill. Though the CDC has issued public warnings about the more serious outbreak in Mexico, there are no recommendations from Washington against traveling to the neighboring country.”

To my utter shock and disbelief, the same article went on to state that our response “is in contrast to the more extreme actions of some other governments, including Hong Kong, where officials on Sunday urged residents to avoid going to Mexico. Hong Kong officials also ordered the immediate detention in a hospital of anyone who arrives with a fever above 100.4 F, respiratory symptoms and a history of traveling over the past seven days to a city with a confirmed case of swine flu infection.” Emphasis mine.

Even Cuba (yes Cuba) and Argentina have banned flights to Mexico in an effort to slow the spread of this outbreak.

Unbelievable.