NYC is rocked by cases of Victorian-era disease in migrant center

New York City Health authorities: Measles in a Brooklyn migrant shelter.

Two people have been confirmed to have the highly contagious disease at the Clinton Hill shelter, which is housing about 3,000 migrants. Seeking legal entry into the United States.

Officials from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene worked with a local hospital to isolate the patients on one floor of the facility.

Asylum seekers are not required to be vaccinated upon arrival in the United States, so many may not be vaccinated when they arrive. CDC I believe it is essential.

These incidents are Chicago An outbreak at a migrant shelter in May led to a single case that has now spread to 57 cases in the city, and other cases of illness have been recorded at migrant shelters across the US in recent years.

Critics of the Biden administration have singled out outbreaks in detention centers to blast what they call “porous” conditions. Southern Border.

Customs and Border Protection apprehended a record 2.5 million migrants in 2023, but some estimates suggest more than 8.4 million have arrived since Biden took office.

The ages of patients at the Hall Street Migrant Shelter in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, have not been made public.

Measles is especially dangerous for children, whose immune systems are more vulnerable and who are more likely to suffer severe effects, such as brain inflammation that can lead to brain damage and pneumonia.

“The health department and the health and hospitals department are working together to ensure that everyone at risk of exposure gets the support and resources they need,” Director General of Health Ashwin Vasan said on Friday night.

“Measles may be an extremely contagious virus, but because most New Yorkers have been vaccinated, the risk to the community is low.”

Asylum seekers are not required to be vaccinated against measles when they arrive in the United States.

Most Central American countries from which many migrants originate, including Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama, have MMR vaccination rates above 90 percent.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s vaccination rate is fairly low at 82 percent.

But crowded conditions in migrant shelters could turn them into hotspots for infection.

NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation operates New York City’s public hospital system, which includes hospitals such as Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn.

Taxpayers fund these hospitals through city, state, and federal funds. Public hospital systems also rely on patient revenue and government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare for additional funding.

“We’re not going to let them go,” said Brooklyn City Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents the area where the shelter is located. The city rejected her efforts. Offering the vaccine to all evacuation center residents.

She said: “I requested a vaccination van at a local resource fair hosted by my office on June 1st but was denied.”

“I have been calling for more resources for my new neighbors on Hall Street for months, but the refusal to provide a vaccination schedule and the lack of a citywide plan to right-size our shelter population and accommodate shelter stays beyond 30 or 60 days is what has brought us here today.”

According to the New York City Department of Health, a measles outbreak continues in New York City, with 11 reported cases as of July 12, but two of these cases are not considered an outbreak and three cases should be included.

That’s up from just one incident last year after three years without one.

The city experienced a large outbreak in 2019, centered on ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County, with a total of 605 cases reported that year.

Outbreaks of influenza and coronavirus have also been confirmed in migrant shelters. tuberculosis There have been various problems over the years, including several cases of tuberculosis at Chicago shelters.

Director General of Health Dr. Vasan said: I said in the past President Biden’s previous lax border policies have led to an influx of migrants bringing infectious diseases into the country, including tuberculosis, polio and COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Republicans have expressed disdain for Biden’s border policies and their connection to the epidemic.

“Biden’s America: Due to an influx of illegal immigrants into the Democrat-governed city of Chicago, there are now more measles cases in Chicago than in the past 14 years combined,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement.

And Richard Grenell, a Republican who served as acting director of national intelligence in 2020, Said“Joe Biden’s open borders are also a health crisis. Diseases that were under control are resurfacing… A measles outbreak is followed by a tuberculosis outbreak at a migrant shelter in Chicago.”

CBP border apprehensions and expulsions have surged since hitting a record low of about 57,000 in 2020. But in 2023, The number has skyrocketed Up to 2.5 million.

Preliminary data for 2024 suggests that figure could surpass that by the end of the year. Already, the Southwest border has seen 1.8 million encounters between Border Patrol agents and migrants.

According to government statistics, the number of encounters with migrants crossing the border from Mexico reached about 250,000 in December 2023, and the number of arrests reached a record high.

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This is the highest monthly total ever, beating the previous peak of about 224,000 cases in May 2022.

The surge in migration under Biden comes after the president called for amnesty for illegal immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum from gang violence and, in Venezuela’s case, those fleeing a dictatorial regime rife with corruption and human rights abuses.

But voters rebelled against what millions of people felt was too generous, while Republicans Blame the Biden Administration Monitor open borders that allow migrants to enter without checks.

However, illegal border crossings More than 50% decrease It has been six weeks since the President used his executive power to strengthen asylum screening processes, remove those who pose a threat to public safety, and put in place a system to quickly remove those who do not have a lawful basis to be there.

According to Troy A. Miller, the CBP senior official performing the duties of the commissioner, the executive action led to a 29 percent decrease in apprehensions by U.S. Border Patrol from May to June, a more than 50 percent decrease in the seven-day average from the announcement through the end of the month, and doubled the rate of alien removals by Border Patrol in June.