Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, is participating in a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing today on the Swine Flu or H-1-N-1 virus outbreak. Braley says the remarks made today by Vice President Biden on traveling will be a topic of discussion.
Biden told NBC this morning, he’s advising his family to stay off commercial airlines and subways, noting, if one person sneezes on a plane, "it goes all the way through the aircraft."
Braley says he did not hear the vice president’s remarks, but the did come up during the hearing, and those at the hearing will be asked to clarify those remarks and talk about the recommended precautions. Braley says Biden’s remarks do not follow what is being recommended.
"I suspect that it may be another example of the vice president just speaking off the cuff without having actual scientific foundation for what he said, and I hope that we get that clarified and get it out today," Braley says.
The White House later issued a clarification of Biden’s statement saying Biden was telling family members to avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways.