Might European countries close venues for Swine Flu?
 

Okay, we are scheduled to leave tomorrow for Amsterdam and Copenhagen - 10 days total. My chiropractor (not a sissy - her favorite place is Africa) just hit me with "what if they start closing down the museums? are you still going to want to be there?"
So: any idea of the mood over in that part of Europe? We're not afraid of the flu itself, we know pandemic means widespread vs wide based killer, BUT if we're suddenly in the midst of many masked people, if the airports are a zoo, if Keukenhof and the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, etc etc, close down - now THAT would make me wonder why we've spent the miles and points and money to be there.
Plus I've been very recently diagnosed with Lyme's disease and am on antibiotic bothered by dairy (restricted on cheeses in Netherlands....say it ain't so!), plus have some aches and all - maybe someone's trying to tell me 2009 is not my year for tulips! trying to instill some humor here - really, we're not wimps and have been so excited about this trip, BUT we want the happy go lucky version, not the fearful world version!
Any help from locals "over there" would be greatly appreciated - I've read all the runs here about "would you cancel your trip", so it's really a gauge of the mood and possibilities that I'm looking for.
Thanks..

So far there is no sign of panic anywhere in Europe.

More relevant is increased vigilance on health state of passengers coming off flights from affected areas: Mexico, US and Canada. Some airports have installed body heat detectors to pick up passengers with temperature, and health officials are on the lookout for those with cold or flu symptoms.
So don't sneeze or cough when walking through arrivals area, or you may be stopped and quarantined!

Hopefully Jo-Ann has already left on her trip, but given the increased vigilance to screen for people with flu-like symptoms, anyone travelling with a non-flu condition that could present flu-like symptoms might want to get a note from a doctor to avoid delays. Example - coughing is a side effect of some heart meds and it would be a shame to get detained because of a medication side effect.

No panic in Switzerland. We've got Roche's Tamiflu piled up and ready to use.

Every country will have its own plans. In the UK, the current thinking is that closing places where people congregate is not likely until there are clear outbreaks of a disease in most major population centres. As of yesterday, we had one case of this virus transferring from one person to another in the UK, and only one suspected case (of any origin) in the Netherlands. So we seem to be some weeks away from those sorts of emergency measures, depending on how the situation develops.

For the moment, it's still at the level of warning everyone to make extra sure of the normal hygiene measures when you cough or sneeze.

Nothing happening in Europe yet -- just some isolated cases.

Next week, who knows?

As said, the UK wil be business as usual.