By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) recently blamed the growing measles outbreak on President Obama’s unilateral immigration policy. Now other conservative commentators, including Dr. Ben Carson, have echoed Rep. Brooks’ arguments.
In a radio interview with Birmingham area talk radio personality, Matt Murphy, Congressman Mo Brooks said, “I don’t think there is any health care professional who has examined the facts who could honestly say that Americans have not died because the disease is brought into America by illegal aliens who are not properly health care screened, as lawful immigrants are. Unfortunately, our kids just aren’t prepared for a lot of the diseases that come in and are borne by illegal aliens.”
He continued: “You gotta have sympathy for the illegal alien child that is burdened with this disease, but you also have to do what you can to protect American kids from the suffering and sometimes death associated with this disease.”
Likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson echoed Rep. Brooks arguments in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. The former John Hopkins neurosurgeon said, “We have to account for the fact that we now have people coming into the country, sometimes undocumented people, who perhaps have diseases that we had under control,” and listed the California measles outbreak as an example.
Ninety-two cases of measles have been confirmed in California alone since December, with more than 100 cases reported nationwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measles has been reported in 14 states.
Dr. Carson urged that American parents get their children vaccinated, “We already have policies in place at schools that require immunization reports. A lot of people are put off when they hear the word government force. And perhaps there’s a better way to put these things,” he said, adding that the benefits of immunizing children have been proven. “Vaccines are very, very important and have made a tremendous difference in our society.” Carson said that now that measles is loose in the country (however it arrived), “We need to be doubly vigilant about making sure that we immunize our people to keep them from getting diseases that once were under control.”
Dr. Carson said that more work needs to be done educating the populous on the truth about vaccines. “There were a lot of myths going around about vaccinations causing autism.”
On Wednesday, February 4, Rush Limbaugh said on his nationally syndicated radio show on why the media is not focusing on the measles outbreak, “Many people made the point that the only reason it’s an issue now is Obama’s immigration policy, that we had conquered the disease. The CDC had officially proclaimed measles to be a conquered disease in 2000. Meaning there was no need for anymore vaccines. And yet there were Obama and Hillary in 2008 (paraphrasing), “Oh, yeah, well, there could be a link to autism.” That was dredged up and then the idea that Obama and his immigration policy is largely responsible for this, so they drop it.”
Outspoken radio host Michael Savage told World Net Daily, “Measles, the killer flu strain, the resurgence of TB have all followed Obama’s reckless policy of bringing in unscreened, unvaccinated masses from south of the border.” “Obama has committed a sort of medical genocide, as I’ve stated before. He and his stooges at the once reputable CDC and [National Institutes of Health] should be tried for negligence and crimes against humanity for reversing the basic rules of protecting the public from diseases.”
Writing in “The Hill” recently, Congressman Brooks wrote, “President Obama’s border security record is abysmal and helped trigger today’s immigration crisis.” “No part of American society has escaped the damage wrought by the White House’s refusal to enforce America’s immigration laws.”
Congressman Mo Brooks represents Alabama’s Fifth Congressional District.
Original reporting by Talking Points Memo Livewire’s Kaitlin MacNeal and World Net Daily’s Bob Unruh contributed to this report.
