STAFF EDIT: Preventing the swine flu

President Barack Obama has told Americans not to panic over swine flu, but not panicking doesn’t mean sit on your hands and hope that swine flu doesn’t get any worse. Thus far, Boston University officials have taken the appropriate measures to protect the BU community at home and abroad.

The first priority should be to protect the health of the 13 BU students studying abroad in Mexico. With 152 already dead and more than 1,600 infected in Mexico, Mexican officials are clearly taking the threat seriously by closing all schools and universities until May 6, as they should be.

By joining countless other universities in allowing students studying abroad in Mexico to come home early, BU is taking the right action. Of course, it would be way out of line for BU to ban these students from setting foot on campus; swine flu simply hasn’t reached that crisis level yet. But advising the returning students from Mexico to go straight home for a few days instead of returning to BU is a perfectly reasonable course of action. These students were obviously not going to be on campus anyway had the swine flu scare never happened. Hopefully, these students have enough common sense and concern for the general welfare of others to refrain from potentially exposing tens of thousands of those in the BU community to a dangerous flu virus.

A college campus is not one of the better places to be during a possible pandemic. Even a campus as spread out as BU’s is susceptible. Students still reside in close quarters at all times, in the dining hall, classrooms, bathrooms and dorm rooms.’

Having to put on a mask every time you enter Student Health Services with a cough may seem a bit ridiculous, given that there has yet to be one death from swine flu in the United States. But when it comes to dealing with a potential global pandemic, the administration is smart to stick to its better-safe-than-sorry approach.