Should Vice President Joe Biden flee to Phobos?

With unrelated news reports that scientists in several countries are preparing missions to Phobos, a moon of the planet Mars, and that U.S. Vice President Joe “Jabbering” Biden recommends his family avoid flying on commercial airplanes or riding in subway cars because of the risk of exposure to the swine flu virus H1N1, perhaps science fiction author Pamela Sargent should pen a story titled “Joey Flees to Phobos”, in which Biden and his family members flee to the Martian moon in order to escape the deadly wrath of the swine flu. Benefits of living on Phobos: there are no airplanes or subways, and no documented cases of the flu.

Pamela Sargent is the author of the award-winning novelette “Danny Goes to Mars” (1992), a satirical piece based on an ill-conceived comment about oxygen on Mars uttered by Vice President Dan Quayle, as quoted in Mother Jones magazine, January 1990. Sargent is also the author of the novelette “Hillary Orbits Venus” (1999).