24<\/div>SHARES<\/span><\/div>

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Successful public health campaigns and medical advances have enabled the United States\u200b to\u200c conquer a range of disfiguring and damaging diseases. Polio, which paralyzed thousands \u200bof Americans annually, was wiped out by widespread vaccinations.\u200c In 1999 the nation\u2019s last hospital for lepers closed its doors in Louisiana. \u2063A\u200b global campaign eradicated smallpox,\u2062 while lethal \u2063tuberculosis, the \u201cconsumption\u201d that stalked characters in decades of literature, seemed \u2062beaten\u2062 by antibiotics. Measles outbreaks still occur from time to \u2062time, but they \u200bare small,\u2064 local, and\u2064 easily contained.<\/p>\n

Recently, however, some of these forgotten\u200d but \u200dstill formidable infectious diseases have begun to \u2063reappear \u200din \u2063the\u2064 U.S. For two years running, polio has been detected in some New York\u200b water samples, and this fall, leprosy reemerged in Florida, where cases of malaria have also been recorded.<\/p>\n

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Health officials \u2064say they are not sure why these\u200c and\u2062 other infectious diseases are\u2062 resurfacing. One distinct possibility, which officials are loath\u2062 to discuss, \u200cis\u2063 that the \u2063millions of migrants who have \u2063crossed into\u200d the country in recent years could be bringing the scourges with them, since many are from countries \u200bwhere such rare diseases persist and \u2064vaccination programs are not robust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent polio\u2063 and leprosy\u2063 cases\u200c are almost\u200c certainly imports to the U.S.,\u201d \u200bsaid Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and scientist at Stanford University, one of the most outspoken critics of official\u2062 Covid-19\u2064 narratives in the last pandemic that later proved flawed.<\/p>\n

And the Biden administration, an aggressive promoter of often mandatory vaccination last time, now is\u2063 offering little public comment on the connection between disease and the porous borders with which its immigration \u2062policy \u200chas become \u200bwidely identified.<\/p>\n

Neither the Centers for Disease Control<\/a> nor the Department of Homeland Security<\/a> would discuss the issue with RealClearInvestigations. Legal immigrants are required to receive\u2063 vaccinations for a\u200b host of diseases, but the Department of Homeland Security\u2064 acknowledged it does not \u200chave vaccination records for\u2064 the \u2062millions who have entered the U.S. since \u200bthe\u2062 Biden administration relaxed border controls upon taking office in January 2021.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not like there is some Typhoid \u2062Mary out there, but this is something people are seeing and thinking about, \u200beven if they don\u2019t want to discuss it publicly,\u201d \u200dsaid Art \u2064Arthur \u200cof the \u200cCenter for Immigration Studies, which\u200d opposes the Biden \u200dadministration\u2019s border policies.<\/p>\n

The reticence \u200bof federal agencies has not stopped some local officials, however, from raising public health alarms over massive immigration. New York \u200bCity Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan warned in April<\/a> that at least half of the migrants who have poured into the city had\u2062 not been vaccinated against\u200b polio. The potentially \u200dparalyzing and life-threatening\u200d virus remains endemic in two countries in the\u200b world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization. Since President Biden \u2063ordered what proved to be a chaotic withdrawal \u2062from Afghanistan in 2021, an estimated 90,000 Afghans have come\u200b to \u200dthe\u200b U.S. under the \u200cterms of \u200bOperation Allies Welcome.<\/p>\n

It is not clear if those migrants met the polio vaccination requirement.\u200d DHS did not respond to a question\u200c about\u200b whether medical\u200b histories were reviewed in the fast-tracked entry of Afghans who got out of their country before the Taliban reimposed its control.<\/p>\n

Vasan\u2019s warning pointed directly to the southern border, \u2064which \u2063has seen record-shattering arrivals on the Biden administration\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMore than \u200c50,000 people \u2063have come to New York City \u2063in the past year shortly after crossing\u200d the U.S.-Mexico border,\u201d he wrote\u200c in \u2064an 11-page letter. \u201cI am \u2064writing\u2063 now to underscore\u2064 how critical \u2062it is that health care providers take \u2062a \u2062wide range of considerations into account when working with people who are seeking asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing\u2062 outbreaks of chickenpox in shelters for illegal immigrants, Vasan\u200b also noted the arrival\u200b of newcomers who either began their \u200bjourney in a country where tuberculosis \u200cis present or passed through \u200csuch countries en route to \u2064the U.S.<\/p>\n

The New York City Health Department did not respond to questions\u200d from RealClearInvestigations or to a request \u2064to speak with \u2062Dr. Vasan,\u200c but the numbers have\u200d only grown since he sent his letter. Since spring 2022,\u2062 more than 100,000 migrants had arrived in\u2063 the city, and more than 67,200 were living \u200cin taxpayer-funded housing at the \u200dend of November,\u200c according \u200cto The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Last year, the first recorded polio case in\u200b the \u2062U.S. since 2013 was \u2063diagnosed in New York state, \u200dwith the victim described only as\u200d an \u201cunvaccinated man.\u201d<\/a> Also in 2022, poliovirus was\u2064 found \u200cin the water supply of four New York counties,\u2064 including Long\u200b Island, \u200band New York City. Another positive test result was recorded in Rockland County \u200dthis year, \u200daccording to the state.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., polio\u200d vaccinations remain \u200dpart of \u201cthe routine childhood immunization process\u201d\u200d under which the \u200bCDC recommends \u200dfour doses. Adults who grew up in the U.S. are vaccinated, the agency \u200dsaid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u200d last occurrence prior\u2062 to the New York diagnosis had been in 1979. Since\u2064 November 2022, the CDC has begun wastewater testing for the poliovirus,\u200b so long extinct in\u200d the U.S., in selected areas, but the agency did \u2062not respond to questions about\u200c those\u2063 investigations. It does provide information on Covid and \u2064monkeypox<\/a>, the latter a disease\u200d that primarily afflicts the gay population.<\/p>\n

A thorough investigation, exploring all avenues of transmission and trying to source a virus to its root, is\u2063 common among virus hunters, and the idea that millions of people coming to\u200c the U.S. could inadvertently carry\u200b with them some infectious \u2062disease is \u2063but one possibility. \u200bFor example, thus\u200d far researchers have been unable to pinpoint where the infamous \u200dEbola virus originates\u00a0in \u2062equatorial Africa.<\/p>\n

\u2018Historically\u200d Atypical Countries\u2019<\/h2>\n
The situation in the\u2064 United States is \u2063further\u2063 complicated \u2062by the fact that DHS officials don\u2019t know where\u2062 all of\u200b the more than \u20647.5 million migrants who\u2019ve arrived since Biden took office are living. Those \u2063whom Border Patrol\u2063 agents\u2064 have encountered and processed have immigration court dates, but those dates are years in advance.<\/a> Many \u2062people with uncertain immigration status lack health insurance<\/a> and stay off the grid as much as possible, \u200cmeaning\u200b even\u2062 if the U.S. launched some kind of vaccination program, it would not know where to\u200d concentrate its efforts.<\/p>\n
In \u2062addition, \u200bthe historic flood of illegal immigration during the \u2063Biden\u200d administration has also \u2062featured a much more global population. \u2062DHS \u200buses the \u2062term \u201chistorically atypical \u200ccountries\u201d<\/a> to\u200b describe the panoply of countries\u200c outside of Mexico and Central America from which illegal immigration has soared.\u2064 <\/p>\n
Between 2011 and \u20642022, the number of annual encounters involving immigrants from historically\u2063 atypical\u2063 countries soared from\u200c fewer than 8,000 to almost 1 million. The first six\u200d months of\u2062 2023 saw more than half of official encounters \u2014\u2063 these numbers do not include what Border Patrol\u2064 calls \u201cgotaways\u201d for whom little information is available \u2014 from historically \u2062atypical countries. \u2064But infectious diseases largely forgotten in the \u200dU.S. remain public health issues in both hemispheres, and many of\u200d those nations have much less robust vaccination programs than most modern Western nations.<\/p>\n
In 1988, when the World Health Organization launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative<\/a>, wild poliovirus was evident in 125 countries, but the zone where it remains endemic has shrunk to \u2062Afghanistan and\u2064 Pakistan<\/a>, with most recent cases\u2064 occurring along the countries\u2019 \u2062nearly 1,600-mile border, according to \u200dthe CDC. Vaccination \u2062campaigns have proved problematic under \u200bthe militant \u200bIslamic fundamentalist Taliban, according to the CDC. Oral vaccines in \u201cparts of the \u200dsouth and northeast regions\u201d\u2064 are \u201callowed only\u200d at health facilities, mosques, and polio vaccination sites.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March, Al Jazeera reported\u200d that the Taliban would allow a \u2062polio vaccination program for children,\u2063 but precise figures on the\u200b country\u2019s overall vaccination rate<\/a> remain unclear. The World Health Organization estimates that 76\u200c percent of\u200c Afghanistan\u2019s children\u200b have received a polio vaccine.<\/p>\n
But some countries have even lower vaccination rates. On Nov. 30, for instance, some 700 \u200bpeople, including many from Senegal and Nigeria, walked \u2062into the U.S. at the Texas border. \u200bOnly 63 percent of Senegal\u2019s children have been vaccinated for polio, and various fevers, hepatitis, and malaria are endemic there. Measles<\/a>,\u200d which the U.S. declared eliminated here\u2063 in 2000, is an issue too. The WHO estimates 22 million\u2063 children missed their first\u200c measles vaccine<\/a> last year and more than \u2064half \u2064of them live in just 10 countries, all of which fall in the \u201chistorically \u200batypical\u201d immigration list.<\/p>\n
Measles cases have risen in the U.S., from \u200c13 individual cases \u2064in 2020\u200d to 121 in 2022, according to the CDC. Recent outbreaks in Ohio and Illinois\u2062 have all occurred among unvaccinated children, \u200caccording\u2062 to state health officials.\u2062 The age and nationality of victims are not made public, but the measles vaccination rate is below 70 percent in many countries\u2063 that have sent immigrants to \u2062the \u2064U.S. recently.<\/p>\n
While few are publicly pushing\u200d the panic button, \u2063some public health officials worry that\u2062 a \u2062creeping mistrust of vaccines in the wake of the pandemic \u200dmay\u200b make more Americans vulnerable to dangerous and even deadly scourges. Syphilis, for example,\u200b has been on the rise for many years but rose sharply during the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 has\u2064 drawn\u2064 the lion\u2019s share of\u200c attention\u2062 from the public health bureaucracy<\/a> since 2020,\u2064 leading to shortfalls \u200bin other areas, some experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these\u200c diseases are more prevalent in part because of lockdown policies which diverted public health resources and attention worldwide\u200c away from its traditional priorities of \u200dcontrolling the spread \u200dof these deadly infectious conditions,\u201d Dr. Bhattacharya said, referring to \u2063measles and other maladies.<\/p>\n
And just \u200bas there is no cure for \u2064polio, there is\u200b no vaccine for \u2063some infectious\u200c diseases. Malaria, for example, the mosquito-borne\u2063 fever that killed more workers than yellow fever did when the \u200bPanama \u200bCanal was built, remains endemic in tropical zones, and its path to rare\u200d outbreaks\u200d in the U.S. usually follows either a \u200ctrip made abroad or\u2064 someone \u200bmoving here, according to health officials in\u2064 Florida.<\/p>\n
Department spokesman Jae Williams told RCI \u200cthe \u200bexact sources \u200cof many\u2062 infectious disease outbreaks in the Sunshine State\u200b remain unknown, but the \u2064huge increase in illegal immigrants could be a clue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s \u2064always \u200da possibility, and our most recent malaria cases\u200b appeared \u200dto be a strain from Central America,\u201d he said. In other words, the malaria could have been brought by a newcomer\u200c or picked up by someone who traveled there and returned.<\/p>\n
Central Florida this summer saw leprosy return, although the exact source remains a \u200bmystery, Williams said. Information\u200d about the age, \u200csex, and \u2064nationality of victims\u200d is not \u2063public, and most of those \u200cwho contracted the infectious, skin-disfiguring disease\u2064 were described only as \u201clandscapers.\u201d<\/a> Various accounts have speculated armadillos are to blame, but armadillos\u200c are not newcomers to the\u200c region. The theory holds that somehow the leprosy bacteria, which generally requires prolonged contact \u200dand against which most humans have developed immunity over millennia, is in the dirt \u200barmadillos wallow in, and the \u200ccases that broke out\u200d among landscapers\u200b then would be linked \u200bto the animals they encounter.<\/p>\n
But leprosy is not endemic in Florida. It is most common in parts of southeast Asia, equatorial Africa,\u200c and\u200b Brazil.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe influx of people, sure it\u2019s a problem and it\u2019s always a possibility,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t \u200dreally know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the questions are being asked with more frequency. On Dec. 19, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative commentator, \u200cset off a firestorm on X,\u2062 formerly Twitter, that her\u2063 Delta \u200dflight from Phoenix to New York was filled with\u200c people \u200dwho\u200c had recently \u2063been\u200d processed, released, and brought to the airport by \u200cBorder \u2064Patrol.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll \u200bthe pilots, \u2064airline staff, and \u200cpassengers want \u2062to know\u2063 is: what medical screenings are being done?\u201d she wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Delta did not respond to questions\u200d from RCI\u2063 about\u2062 what\u2064 knowledge it had been provided about its passengers.<\/p>\n
This article<\/a> was originally published\u200b by RealClearInvestigations.<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u200drnrn <\/p>\n
What measures should the\u200d U.S. government take to address the potential risks associated with infectious diseases \u2064and immigration, while ensuring the protection of both immigrants and the general \u2064population<\/h2>\n
The Reemergence of Infectious \u2063Diseases in the United States: A Possible Connection to \u200dImmigration<\/p>\n
Successful public health campaigns and \u200cmedical advances have enabled the United States to conquer a range \u200dof disfiguring and damaging\u200b diseases. Polio, leprosy, smallpox, and tuberculosis were once major health concerns<\/a>, but they have been largely eliminated or controlled through widespread vaccinations and antibiotic treatments. However,\u2062 in recent years, some\u200c of these forgotten but still formidable \u2063infectious diseases have begun to reappear in the U.S., raising concerns about public health and the potential connection to immigration.<\/p>\n
Polio, a disease that paralyzed \u200bthousands\u2064 of\u2064 Americans annually, was wiped out through widespread vaccinations. However, in the\u2064 past two \u200dyears, polio has been detected in some New York water samples, signaling a resurgence of the\u2063 disease. \u2063Similarly,\u200c leprosy reemerged in Florida, and cases of malaria have\u2064 also been recorded. Health officials are unsure why these and other infectious diseases\u2062 are\u2064 resurfacing, but one possibility is that the millions of migrants who have crossed \u200dinto the country in recent years could be bringing these diseases with them.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and scientist at Stanford University, believes \u2062that the recent polio and leprosy cases are imports to the U.S. He suggests that the migrants,\u200d many of whom come \u2062from countries \u200bwhere these diseases persist \u200cand vaccination programs \u200bare not\u200d robust, could\u200d be unintentionally carrying the diseases \u200dwith them. However, the Biden administration, which previously promoted mandatory vaccinations, is now offering little\u2064 public comment on the connection\u200d between \u2064disease and immigration.<\/p>\n
The issue is further complicated by the lack of vaccination records for the millions of migrants who have \u200dentered the U.S. since\u2063 the Biden administration \u2062relaxed border controls. Legal immigrants are required to receive vaccinations \u2064for a host of diseases, but the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged that they do not have vaccination records for these recent arrivals.<\/p>\n
While federal agencies are hesitant to discuss the issue, \u2064some local\u200c officials have raised public health alarms\u2062 over the impact of massive immigration. New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan warned that at least half of the migrants who have poured into the city\u200b had not been vaccinated against polio. This is a significant concern as polio remains \u200cendemic \u2064in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries where many\u200d migrants originate from.<\/p>\n
The situation is further complicated by \u200cthe fact that many migrants have uncertain immigration status and lack health insurance. This means that even \u2064if the U.S.\u200b were to \u2064launch a vaccination program, it\u2062 would not know where to concentrate its efforts. \u200dAdditionally, the historic \u200cflood of illegal immigration during the Biden administration has \u200dfeatured a much more global \u2063population, with migrants coming from historically atypical \u2062countries with less\u2064 robust vaccination programs.<\/p>\n
The reemergence of infectious diseases raises concerns about public health and the potential risks\u2062 associated with immigration.\u2062 Measles cases, for example, have risen in the U.S.,\u200d with recent outbreaks occurring among unvaccinated children. Malaria, which remains endemic in tropical zones, has also appeared in \u2064rare \u200boutbreaks in the U.S.,\u200b often following trips made abroad or someone moving to the country.<\/p>\n
Some public health officials worry that the focus on COVID-19 has diverted resources and attention away from controlling the\u200c spread of other infectious diseases. Lockdown policies have disrupted traditional public health priorities, leading \u2063to shortfalls in vaccination efforts and disease control.<\/p>\n
While it is essential to address the potential connection between immigration and the reemergence of \u2064infectious diseases, it is crucial not to stigmatize \u2062immigrants or perpetuate xenophobia. A thorough investigation is necessary to determine the sources\u2062 of these diseases and explore all avenues of transmission. The U.S. must \u2063also ensure that it has robust vaccination \u200bprograms and systems in place to protect its population from dangerous and \u2064deadly infectious diseases.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the\u200d reemergence of infectious diseases in the United States raises concerns about public health and the potential connection to immigration.\u2063 It is essential \u200cto address these \u2064issues\u200c with careful consideration, ensuring that public health measures are in place to protect both immigrants and\u200b the \u2063general \u200cpopulation. Through a comprehensive approach that includes vaccination programs, disease surveillance, and international collaboration, the U.S. can mitigate \u2062the risks associated with infectious \u2064diseases and maintain\u2062 a healthy society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Successful public health campaigns and medical advances in the United States have conquered disfiguring and damaging diseases. Polio, which paralyzed thousands annually, was eradicated through vaccinations. In 1999, the nation’s last leper hospital closed. Globally, smallpox was eradicated, and efforts continue to combat lethal tuberculosis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1695,"featured_media":2139176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1695"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2139176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}