The XX Factor: What women really think.

Chinese Swine Flu Torture

A post from Double X writer KJ Dell'Antonia:

Last Friday, the State Department issued a travel alert for China, citing “random” swine flu quarantine measures and noting that the U.S. Embassy will be “unable to influence the duration of stay in quarantine.” Not everyone listened, and among the approximately 200 U.S. citizens currently quarantined in China, you’ll find me; my 7-, 5-, and 3- year olds; my mother; and my husband, who—against all odds, according to our docs at home—actually caught it from someone seated behind him on the plane... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)

Help! Sneeze!

Vice President Joe Biden is clearly on a confidence high from having talked Sen. Arlen Specter into joining the other team. So now, after 100 days of relative silence, he's running his mouth again. On the Today show this morning, he said;

I would tell members of my family, and I have, "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," the vice president said. It's not that he's going to Mexico, it's that you're in a confined aircraft, and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft...So from my perspective what relates to mitigation, if you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing. If you're in a closed aircraft or a closed container or closed car or closed class room, it's a different thing.

This is, of course, not what the president said last night. He stuck to the basics: Wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough. And the problem is not that what Biden said isn't true; the Mexican government has been spreading this message for over a week. It's that it gives the impression that public officials, trading on inside information, are telling their families something they aren't telling the rest of us. His spokeswoman quickly corrected the mistake, insisting he told his family the same thing he's been telling the rest of us: Only stay out of subways and airplanes if you're sick.

Swine Flu Is the New Black!

Here a pandemic, there a pandemic, everywhere you look lurks the swine flu. What's a girl to do? Get stylish with it. In the blogyard, swine-flu-inspired fashions abound. Refinery 29's Pipeline suggests you weather the pigocalypse with panache, in a sequined hood and armed with cleansing hand gel. Over at New York, The Cut offers face masks for the fashionista, including the Richard Prince nurse-styled, the besnouted, and the Gitmo-esque. Me? I prefer the look of this latex pig mask. If you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em.

Should Doctor Friends Prescribe You Tamiflu?

Here is a question I would pose to Randy Cohen, the New York Times ethicist (and I'm hoping all of you will stand in for him). The U.S. has declared a public health emergency over swine flu, having detected 20 cases. The president says not to panic, but the European Union advises its citizens not to travel here. A pamphlet quoted by the New York Times, raises this question: "What if there is lawlessness. I need to protect my family and myself. What are essential safety items to have?"

Well, Tamiflu, for one. And while news stories assure us there is ample supply, this is could be government P.R. designed to keep us from storming the pharmacy. I have friends and relatives who are doctors who can prescribe Tamiflu for me and my family. They are reluctant, and they should be. This is a public health epidemic, and giving prescriptions out to perfectly healthy people is detrimental to public health, because it risks cleaning out local pharmacies. Also, having a doctor friend do you a favor is a privilege of the upper classes.

Here's what makes it trickier. You are supposed to wait until there is a reasonable risk, meaning you are surrounded by sick people, or feel the symptoms yourself. But Tamiflu is only effective 48 hours after you are infected. Any later, and it doesn't work. So what's the right thing to do? Beg the doctor friend, or not?