Not enough vaccine: Asylum seekers awaiting rulings face chickenpox outbreak

[TexasTowelie]

Mirsa Garcia Ramos and her 2-year-old daughter Briseba Aracely left Guatemala and sought asylum in the United States more than a month ago. After processing the family, immigration officials sent them to a shelter in the Mexican border city of Mexicali to await a ruling on their case.

More than a week ago, little Briseba Aracely developed a fever and an itchy rash across her belly and back. As of Monday, she had been sick eight days, and had cried through many sleepless nights. The fluid-filled blisters on her arms that hadn't yet turned to scabs.

Since late January, U.S. immigration officials have been forcing some Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for judges to decide their cases; the controversial program took effect at the Calexico border crossing in mid-March.

Now, as migrants crowd into shelters in Mexicali, facility operators and Mexican state health officials are dealing with a new challenge: At one shelter, at least a dozen adults and children, including Briseba Aracely, have developed chickenpox in the past month.

Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/border-issues/2019/05/16/chickenpox-virus-asylum-seekers-central-america-waiting-enter-u-s-varicella-mexico-mexicali/3699733002/

[Amyishere]

1. I wonder if this is the excuse Trump will use to close the border.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Wouldn't be any surprise, would it?

Some time ago, maybe serveral weeks, a couple of months, he said that they should stay out because they are unhealthy and dragging in illnesses which would infect U.S. Americans...

Now he can also say that they aren't immune enough, like most US schoolchildren who can resist chickenpox, and they will spread the illness like wildfire.

So rotten.

I think you may have a point!