Anchor Lisa Mullins tells us how the swine flu outbreak in Mexico is affecting three very different people: A restaurant manager in Mexico City, a man who is about to be married in North Carolina and a race car team leader from Ireland.
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LISA MULLINS: We also spoke today to Jose Munez. He and his family live in Mexico City proper – and unlike Jorge Milke, they managed to get some face masks. Munez says that's just one of the precautions they're taking against the swine flu virus.
JOSE MUNEZ: We all wear face masks. Every 15 or 20 minutes, we all wash our hands real good. And, myself, when I get home, I don't say hello or hug anybody. I go directly to take off my clothes and get into the shower. And everyone at home who goes out – like my wife or my 26-year-old son, they do exactly the same thing.
MULLINS: Munez has two other kids, ages 12 and 18. He says they have been home since Thursday night. The family got a call at 11 o'clock that night, announcing that school was closed until at least May 6th. Munez says he's not allowing his younger children to go out, so they're getting creative at home.
MUNEZ: Sometimes they read. Sometimes they draw. Sometimes they watch TV. They can play videogames, too. They have options.
MULLINS: Munez is also affected by the crisis at work. He's the manager of a famous restaurant in downtown Mexico City. It's called Cafe Tacuba. And as we heard earlier, all restaurants in the Mexican capital are closed. Munez says he and his staff knew for a few days that a shut down was possible, after authorities started closing venues like nightclubs and bars.
MUNEZ: Obviously, we knew the next step was going to be to shut down restaurants. Even so, it was kind of abrupt. They only told us at noon yesterday that we had to shut down right away. We had already prepared for the day and cooked the food. Then we couldn't serve it to people, so we gave the food to our employees to take home. At least that way somebody can enjoy it, ‘cause we can't just throw it away.
MULLINS: Restaurants in the city are allowed to sell take-out. But Munez says that his kitchen isn't set up for that. So he decided to shut down completely, even though that means no income for the restaurant and for about 100 employees.
MUNEZ: Personally, I'm not facing economic problems as much as my employees are. But to be honest with you, it's more about the anxiety, not knowing what's going to happen. The number of people infected isn't going down, even though we're doing all the right things like washing our hands. Somehow, if this keeps going, they're going to have to shut down more and more venues and cancel public services. They're even talking about shutting down public transportation. And if they do that, they're going to completely paralyze the city. It really is a critical situation.
MULLINS: That is Jose Munez, who is the manager of Cafe Tacuba in downtown Mexico City. The health emergency in Mexico is also affecting Americans with plans to travel there. Take 29-year-old Cole Sadler. He's getting married on Saturday in North Carolina. But after the wedding, he and his wife-to-be had plans to head south.
COLE SADLER: We've been engaged for more than a year. So we had been planning the honeymoon for quite some time. And we looked around and we chose Mexico because we could get there quickly and wouldn't waste a whole day of travel time. And then this stuff came out with the drug cartel troubles in Mexico, and all my family was leaning on me, “Oh, no. You can't go to Mexico.†And so we got them calmed down on that. And then when the swine flu stuff started coming around, I was kind of like, “Well, I don't know.†And then the CDC changed their stance Monday night and suggested against unnecessary travel, and that was the last straw in a string of things -- and we decided to change plans from Mexico to Jamaica at that point.
MULLINS: Well, still – Jamaica's not bad as a back up.
SADLER: No. I still think we're going to have a great time.
MULLINS: Well, we hope you do. And then, there's the effect the public health emergency in Mexico is having on car racing. The A-1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport features teams from around the world. The last race of the season was to take place in Mexico next month. Well, it's been cancelled. That means the crucial deciding race is now this weekend, in the UK. Mark Gallagher leads Team Ireland, which is fighting to win the championship.
MARK GALLAGHER: We thought we would be battling over two further race weekends with our closest rivals, which is Portugal, but now it's down to the wire on Sunday. So it puts a completely different impression on this weekend, and now this is kind of D-Day for us and the championship. We're very disappointed not to be going to Mexico, it's a race we won last year. But under the circumstances, perhaps this decision is very understandable.
MULLINS: Race car drivers, newlyweds, and restaurant owners – just some examples of people affected by swine flu, without actually being infected by the virus. You can find updated information on swine flu at theworld.org.
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