The Top 10 Everything of 2009

"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places right now. It's not that it's going to Mexico. It's that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft. That's me."

— Vice President Joe Biden, on NBC's Today show, giving his advice on dealing with the swine flu outbreak, which seemed to contradict the Administration's advice to the public (April 30)

The official word from the White House that week was that the swine flu outbreak was not a cause for alarm. Then came Biden, suggesting on national TV that people avoid planes, subways and classrooms to keep from catching the bug. Biden's press team quickly sent out a statement after the interview claiming that he was trying to warn people who already had swine flu to avoid enclosed spaces, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs at his daily briefing apologized on Biden's behalf.