Reports That Barack Obama Had Contact With Swine Flu Fatality Fake

At today's White House Press Briefing, the hot topic was the swine flu, and more specifically, a man named Felipe Solis Holguin.

According to some reports, the man had close contact with the President during his trip to Mexico, then died a short time later of "Flu-like symptoms." From the UK Independent:

According to alarming reports from Mexico City, Felipe Solis, a distinguished archaeologist who showed Mr Obama around the city's anthropology museum during his visit to Mexico earlier this month, died the next day from "flu-like symptoms".

Mr Solis met the President at a gala dinner which was held at the museum on 16 April, before Mr Obama travelled on to the Americas summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked by AURN's April Ryan, repeatedly, about the President's contact with Solis, to which he replied that he would check on the story. Gibbs repeatedly reiterated that the President's doctors had given him a clean bill of health.

Solis was the subject of follow-ups by several other reporters, but Gibbs gave the same responses.

As it turns out, we might have wasted a big chunk of Gibbs' time and ours. Now, a commenter on the Independent's story disputes the account, providing this link:

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CIUDAD DE MÉXICO.- Víctima de un paro cardiaco murió este mañana el arqueólogo Felipe Solís Olguín, experto en cultura mexica y director del Museo Nacional de Antropología (MNA), quien supervisaba los últimos detalles de la magna exposición "Teotihuacán. Ciudad de los Dioses", que abre el 18 de mayo.

Here's the Google translation:

Victim died of a heart attack this morning archaeologist Felipe Solis Olguin, an expert on Mexican culture and director of the National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), who oversaw the final details of the great exhibition "Teotihuacan. City of the Gods," which opens the May 18.

The article is dated April 23.

I'm sure the President appreciates the press corps' concern, but based on Gibbs' statement, I'm pretty sure the President didn't catch a heart attack from Solis.

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