Containment is too late?

The swine flu is spreading rapidly across the world. Just moments ago, US confirmed its first death resulted from this pandemic. Germany, Austria and UK have also found new cases. It seems that things are going out of control.

As a result, all countries are trying to contain the swine flu out of their border. They inspect visitors at the airport, which is especially the case in China. Experience of SARS probably helps.

But surprisingly, the WHO officials repeatedly asserted that containment wouldn't be working. They said it was just too late. It's so weird a thing for a WHO officials to utter.

It's very likely that I don't totally understand what they meant, but neither do many people around the world. It could be sending a wrong signal.

Containment can't solve the problem, but it clearly helps. It can't stop the spread of the pandemic, but it can slow it down to some extent. Though the cost is high, it shouldn't be WHO, but the governments, who take this into consideration. Their job is to ensure as few people as possible will be infected, and calling containment unnecessary is not their job, and is very counterproductive.