//All H1N1 update posts

As the H1N1 virus continues to cause harm and concern here are the quick four tips from the CDC to stay healthy:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.  Germs spread that way.
• If you get sick stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Actually these are always good things to do.  What you don't have to do is stop eating pork, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack:

"This is not a food-borne illness, virus -- it is not correct to refer to it as swine flu because really that's not what this is about," Mr. Vilsack said. (NYT)

He says it is "perfectly safe" to eat pork products and he says the U.S. will continue working to keep the trading lanes open with other countries. Vilsack singled out Japan as a country which has "sent a clear message" that this is not a food borne illness and the importation of American pork is safe. (Radio Iowa)

So go ahead and have the masitas de puerco al horno for dinner tonight or perhaps a nice Cuban sandwich for lunch. And speaking of Cuba (sorry, leave no segue behind), the Voice of America had a good piece on Monday's hearing Examining the Status of U.S. Trade with Cuba and its Impact on Economic Growth.

Adrean Rothkopf, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed with one lawmaker that the U.S. has a record of pursuing a double standard, isolating Cuba while engaging other countries with human rights problems. She calls decisions by President Obama, and proposed legislation in Congress, important first steps toward a policy more likely to promote a transition to full Democracy and civil liberties. "Rather than encouraging Cuba to democratize, the embargo has helped prop up the Communist regime. Instead of isolating Cuba from the rest of the world, it has isolated the U.S. from its allies," she said.