WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden is advising his own family to stay off airplanes and subways because of the new swine flu.
"I would tell members of my family - and I have - that I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said Thursday.
Biden, who has a reputation for off-the-cuff remarks, went beyond any precautions recommended by the federal government. In discussing his personal advice to his family, he said simply, "That's me."
Asked on NBC's "Today" show whether the U.S. government should close the border with Mexico, Biden said health authorities advise that would be impractical and noted the new flu is already in the U.S. and several other nations.
Instead, Biden said, the focus should be on slowing the spread of the virus through groups of people in close quarters, such as airplanes, malls, stadiums and classrooms.
"Closing the classroom and closing the border are two fundamentally different things," he said.
Biden, who has three grown children, was asked whether he would advise his own family against flying to Mexico on a commercial flight.
"It's not just going to Mexico, if you're any place in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft," Biden said. "That's me. I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends avoiding non-essential travel to Mexico. But it isn't recommending that people avoid other travel because of the swine flu.
The CDC recommends basic precautions such as hand-washing, use of alcohol hand gels and monitoring local health advisories when traveling. The government also advises that children with the flu be kept home from school and day care. Biden said he hoped employers would be generous with workers who stayed home to care for a sick child.
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