Me and Larry King

Me and Larry King

Monday afternoon I was playing on the beach with Nathan in Huatulco, Oaxaca, when Janell came running up to me with my cell phone. She was talking with Randy Smith of Youth Ministry International. I took the phone, and Randy told me that the Larry King show had contacted him and wanted to put me on their show that evening (here’s his blog post about the show).

A little later, I was on the phone with one of the producers of the show. She had seen that we had blogged about Swine Flu in Mexico City and was wondering what our experience had been (she had left a comment here on the blog, but I wasn’t checking while on vacation). I told her the basic story, and she said that Larry King would like to interview me about it later that evening. Everything was set up. I was going to be on Larry King.

She asked me to send in some pictures of what we had observed in the airport with the Swine Flu as well as a photo of me. So I did. She called back and said that they would be calling me around 8:05 pm Central Time to do the interview. So I sent out a few tweets and sent emails to our family and friends.

Then, I got another voicemail. It turns out that the show decided to cancel the part of interviewing me. Nancy was super nice throughout the whole process. I imagine that she has to cancel on people all the time. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.

But, at least I have a good story to tell about the day Larry King contacted me!

Airport Screening for Swine Flu

This week we went on an already planned trip to Huatulco, Mexico. We flew from Mexico City to Huatulco on Sunday and from Huatulco to Mexico City on Wednesday. With the Swine Flu pandemic all over the world having been suspected to originate in Mexico, we expected the airport to be crazy.

There was a military presence there, handing out masks to passengers. We expected to see that because we knew that they were handing out masks to people as they entered the subway. But handing out masks was pretty much the only sign of swine flu pandemic that we saw.

There was also the “screening” that we went through for them to let us on the plane. It consisted of a single sheet of paper (see the photo – click to enlarge) with a few questions on it.

It asked our name, age, gender, and then some very simple symptom questions. Do you have the following symptoms: Fever over 39 degrees Celsius, cough, headache, limb pain, joint pain, eye redness, and nasal flux. Then, it said, “If you have all of these symptoms, we recommend that you postpone your trip and see a doctor.”

That was it. I expected a little more. We got the same form on the way home from the beach.

I read today that they will be doing more screening now at the airports. I wonder what that will be like. I have heard that they will actually take your temperature at the airport. We’ll see what happens.

Screening for Swine Flu in airport Screening for Swine Flu in Airport