State Rep. Rideout blames measles outbreak on Obama immigration policy
President Obama and his “wave of illegal immigrants” are responsible for the ongoing measles outbreak, writes State Rep. Leon Rideout.
“Measles Once Eradicated In United States Now Rampant In 14 States,” Rideout wrote on his Facebook page. “Can You Say Thank You Obama And Your Wave Of Illegal Immigrants. There Is A Reason To Have Legal Process And Screening!!”
The Lancaster Republican apparently based his claim on the number of measles cases in states with high populations of undocumented immigrants. “Look at the States Connect The Dots and String Of illness Since The Wave Of Illegals This Summer That were inspired to come because of the Non Enforcement Of Immigration Laws By Obama Administration,” Rideout explained.
The Center for Disease Control reports most of the 84 measles cases reported in this country since the first of the year are part of a large, ongoing outbreak linked to two Disney amusement parks in Anaheim, California.
“Although we aren’t sure exactly how this year’s outbreak began,” the agency reports, “we assume that someone got infected overseas, visited the parks and spread the disease to others. Infected people in this outbreak here in the U.S. this year have exposed others in a variety of settings including school, day cares, emergency departments, outpatient clinics and airplanes.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, puts the blame squarely on parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. “It really is a shame that children are not allowed to get vaccinated by their parents,” he said on CBS This Morning.
Measles was eradicated in the U.S. until a significant number of parents began refusing to vaccinate their children against the disease. The New York Times traces the anti-vaccine movement to “a 1998 report in a medical journal that suggested a link between vaccines and autism but was later proved fraudulent and retracted.”
“[A]ll the scientific data that we’ve collected over a long period of time from multiple organizations indicate that the measles vaccine is safe and all of these connections to things like autism and things like that are just not true,” Fauci said.
For the record, the number of undocumented immigrants deported from the U.S. has increased under the Obama administration while those entering the country illegally has decreased
.