Swine Flu: Conservatives Blame Immigrants

Conservative media hosts, including Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, have placed the blame for the spread of swine flu to the United States squarely on the shoulders of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Some even suggested yesterday that Mexicans were purposefully carrying the virus across the border to sabotage the United States.

There's no basis for either claim -- in fact, news reports and health officials suggest that Americans traveling to Mexico likely carried the disease home. For example, several students at the infected school in New York had recently come back from a spring break trip to Cancun.

Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, M.D., the interim deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's science and public health program, suggested that Americans who visited Mexico recently brought the disease back with them: "I know that we have confirmation of disease in people who have traveled to Mexico, and I don't know the numbers, but I know that that is definitely the case in some of our cases, and that's an important factor to consider." Media reports indicate that U.S. swine flu victims had recently traveled to Mexico.

Media Matters documents:

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that stricter border control was not necessary at this time. That would be a very, very heavy cost for what epidemiologists tells us would be marginal" in terms of containing the virus, she said on NBC's "Today" show.

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Comments

[loki]

I dont think it was immigrants. but I do wish we had a little more control over the borders and maybe some screening processes. I doubt it would ever stop the swine flu, but I still think it would be a good thing to have more control over who comes in and when they come in than we do now

[4evryoung]

Darn those pesky American tourists.

[talkitreal]

Not surprising!

[Citizen13]

Does Michelle Malkin think she becomes whiter by putting other minorities down?

[Senzasord]

Just for fun look up the word "Malkin" in the dictionary. How appropriate.

[sepiasiren]

I DID!!! roflamo

[ForObamaInDallas]

Nice. But an insult to cats. Maybe it was a nice way of saying c*n+?

[Halfwit]

Why are conservatives so damned stupid?

[BluesDogLefty]

Typical

[Liberalforsure]

there goes those God loving christian conservatives for ya (with their hearts wrapped in hate as they tote their bibles) I'm truly curious what god they worship?

[RRG64]

Why don`t they just reach for the lipstick for this swine flu thing?

Like they did during the election.

[Budokan]

Disgusting but not surprising at all that conservatives would say this.

http://kennethmarkhoover.com

[springsm]

Wow Norah McConnell is really not letting the conservatives get by with "immigration". She is really not letting them get away with it. WOW. When we finger point like this, we miss the point of the disease. My gawd..it was not immigrants who brought this in...it was tourists coming home Geezus. Point the finger, blame blame blame. I wonder how much ranting Lou baby will do today.

[DemoMom]

I could see this one coming a mile away - it was an inevitable response from the ignorant, knee-jerk side of the media. We all knew it wouldn't take long for them to blame immigrants from Mexico even though evidence shows that the people currently infected are middle class Americans who were either on vacation or business trips in Mexico. Of course, this will soon turn into "gospel truth" when it gets repeated ad nauseam by people like Limbaugh and Hannity, and, before you know it., they will be calling for closing the border. If "ignorance is bliss", these people must be very, very happy.
I really wish we could focus on science and facts, not hype, when dealing with this flu outbreak. All the news anchors just love the term "global pandemic" so they throw it around every chance they get. Even on the Today Show this morning, Ann Curry was breathlessly telling Homeland Security Secretary that "many Americans" want a travel ban, more controls at the airports etc etc and it was just all so much DRAMA!

[Dynamohum]

Ann Curry is a has been. NBC Today interviewers are almost worse than FAUX news personnel.

[LeBelAge]

We all knew this was coming. This is so typical. Leave it to conservatives to ignore the reality of living in the modern world. Disease can easily spread because of global travel. No country is immune.

I guess conservatives can start a new campaign against tourism now.

[RRG64]

lol.......­.........W­hy do Republicans hate tourism?

[swift goat pet for truth]

And those hoardes of Mexican immigrants infected New Zealand, too!!

[oldcliche]

They clearly dug tunnels under the Atlantic for illegal immigrants to smuggle Marijuana. We must put a stop those these sophisticated tunnels!

[kylennblack]

I blame the conservatives who block americans from being able to have access to good health care.

[TekBoss]

Bwahahahah­ahahahahaa­h.

That is hysterical. Swine Flu was brought to New York by RICH kids partying in Mexico during spring break, but it is the immigrants fault!

Bwahahahah­ahahahahah­ahaha. Conservatives ... are effing morons!