OPINION:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy just attended the funeral of an 8-year-old girl who died of complications from measles in a hospital in Lubbock Texas; she was the second child to die from the disease in the state in just a few short weeks. Both children were unvaccinated. Kennedy, meanwhile, stated that the best way to prevent the spread of measles was to obtain the MMR shot.
He could’ve said this, too: The best way for America to keep the country measles-free is to shut down its borders to illegal crossers.
That’s the quiet part. That’s the part open border advocates don’t want spoken out loud.
There’s a reason members of the media have gone into hyper mode to report on a measles outbreak now, but not a few months ago. There’s a reason The New York Times, for instance, is writing about a West Texas count of 480 confirmed cases and 56 hospitalizations, as well as the reported illness of 54 in New Mexico and 10 in Oklahoma. There’s a reason the mainstream, anti-MAGA press is all up in arms about measles’ outbreaks this year, under this administration — but not so much in the time span between January 20, 2021, and January 20, 2025.
Politics.
The presidency.
Joe Biden, Democrat — versus Donald Trump, Republican.
More to point: Measles now mean this administration isn’t doing enough to promote vaccines — that this administration is headed by science deniers who use conspiracy driven data to counter the likes of Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx and Big Pharma. Measles now mean Robert F. Kennedy — see? See? — is completely clueless and ought to be tossed from HHS. Measles under Joe Biden, however, meant something completely different, politically speaking; something that didn’t advance the narrative and agenda of leftists and therefore required media blackout. Measles under Joe Biden meant illegals without vaccines were bringing in diseases to America — and that’s the stuff Democrats don’t want discussed.
When borders were open, under Joe Biden the Democrat, members of the media wanted to defend, deny and defend the Democrats’ open border agenda — so all the unvaccinated who coursed across the border were given free media passage; unscrutinized for diseases and for the potential for carrying diseases. Recall that during the Biden days American citizens were forced to wear face masks and get Covid shot after Covid shot after Covid shot, but that illegals who were allowed in-country were then flown to places north, east and west of the U.S.-Mexico border, at tax-payer expense, put up in hotels and lodging, at tax-payer expense, fed and clothed, at tax-payer expense, and allowed to roam freely — without fear of forced shots.
It was the agenda of the previous Democrat administration to open borders wide, so as to destroy the constitutional system in America, so as to bring in as many future Democrat voters as possible — measles and Covid and ebola and diseases be danged.
In April of 2024, Newsweek reported this: “Joe Biden Faces MAGA Fury for Measles Outbreak Spurred by Migrants.”
In July of 2024, The Daily Mail reported this: “NYC is rocked by cases of Victorian-era disease in migrant center — as critics blame Biden’s porous border.”
In March of 2024, the Federation for American Immigration Reform wrote this: “Measles from Open Borders Puts American Children at Risk.”
In April of 2023, The New York Post wrote this: “Biden’s open borders are bringing contagious diseases to your neighborhood.” The story went on to report how New York City’s health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, warned of the increased chances for American citizens to become sickened by those crossing into the country illegally and carrying diseases like tuberculosis, polio, Covid and yes, measles.
As The Post reported, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2022, at least 6,009 of the 8,300 TB cases were foreign born, leading to a 21 percent increase in TB in Florida over a two-year period.
No surprise there.
Those who enter America legally are required to be tested for and vaccinated against certain diseases.
Those who enter illegally — du’oh. There’s no such safeguard.
“Measles Was ‘Eliminated’ in the U.S. in 2000. The Current Outbreak May Change That,” Scientific American wrote this month, adding: “The U.S. formally eliminated measles in 2000 thanks to widespread vaccination, but public health experts fear the current growing outbreak of the disease may allow it to reclaim its hold.”
The media — because Trump is now president — will spin measles as an outcome of this administration’s failure to mirror the Anthony Fauci brand of science, and to question the Big Pharma industry profits and motives these past few years.
But the truth is measles was breaking out under the previous Biden administration, in large part because the previous Biden administration didn’t care so much about protecting American citizens from diseases as it did about crumbling borders and ushering in globalism.
“Measles Outbreak Associated With a Migrant Shelter — Chicago, Illinois, February — May 2024,” the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report wrote in May of 2024.
“Imported Cases Could Impact Elimination of Measles in Countries That Have Achieved Elimination,” the National Library of Medicine under the National Institutes of Health wrote way back in 2012.
Exactly. It’s common sense.
Lest we forget. Lest we forget who’s to blame; who’s responsible; and why the difference in media coverage now, with Trump, versus then, with Biden.
So let’s not forget.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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