To be scared or not to be scared

Biden on The Today Show Thursday:
I would tell members of my family-and I have - I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said on NBC's "Today" show.. "It's not that it's going to Mexico. It's (that) you're in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.

Later in the day W.H. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told this whopper about the above comment:
I think what the vice president meant to say...if you feel sick, if you are exhibiting flu-like symptoms-coughing, sneezing, runny nose-that you should take precautions, that you should limit your travel..."

This is, of course, not at all what Biden said.

Now, I wonder if a McCain W.H. press secretary would have been forced into such a bald lie on the 101st day about anything his V.P. might have said.

On an adjacent point I must say I don't trust any of these people regarding swine flu. The Australian Government is now calling on citizens to stockpile food and water for an impending pandemic...while also saying "don't panic". Admittedly these two instructions are not mutually exclusive. However, the mixed signals are becoming distressing.