Blaming the Flu on Mexicans Is Immoral. And Foolish.

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/04/29/scapegoating-mexicans.aspx

Blaming the Flu on Mexicans Is Immoral. And Foolish.

Howard Markel and Alexandra Minna Stern are, respectively, the Director and the Associate Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. Both serve as historical consultants on pandemic preparedness planning for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.



The first question to President Obama during Wednesday’s press conference was about whether he’d consider closing the border with Mexico. If you listen to cable television or check around the Internet, you’ll hear that same question--along with some nastier insinuations and conpsiracy theories about Mexicans and their government.

This is all very predictable. And counter-productive.

Epidemics always have scapegoats. In 1892, Eastern European Jews were blamed for outbreaks of typhus and cholera in New York City. In 1900, the Chinese were excoriated for a plague outbreak in San Francisco. Gays were singled out for for HIV/AIDs in the 1980s, Asians for SARS in 2003.

snip//

Not only is such behavior a reflexive exercise in racism. It is, quite simply, a huge detriment to the public health. When groups start getting blamed for epidemics, members of those groups will start to fear--sometimes legitimately--that they will be stigmatized, mistreated, or punished if they seek medical attention. So they simply don’t go to the doctor or hospital, at least not until it’s too late for treatment and too late for detection to have done the most good. Taking care of these people, and containing the outbreak, becomes a great deal harder.

This isn’t mere conjecture. It’s been documented in numerous public health studies. And we’re already seeing anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon. There are stories of mistreatment--real or not--circulating in the immigrant press. According to the Associated Press, some Mexican-Americans in California say that medical professionals are turning them away.

In the coming weeks, we have a lot of work to do--and little time for this sort of scapegoating. Blaming the victim of an epidemic is akin to using lancets for bloodletting: sharp, painful, and counter-productive. And, like bloodletting, it should belongs in a museum--as a historical relic.

[HereSince1628]

1. As is blaming Cheney admin torture on Mormons. n/t

[babylonsister]

2. Huh? What does that have to do with the OP?

And who's blaming Mormons? Not me.

Maybe you need to start your own thread and have it be completely about that instead of not even acknowledging what's in this one.

[HereSince1628]

6. It has to do with other DU posts from the last 30 minutes

Nothing more is meant to connect to your OP.

[babylonsister]

8. I haven't read them, but that premise sounds ludicrous. nt

[HereSince1628]

11. From about 8 slots earlier than your OP on the Latest Page

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5574073

[babylonsister]

13. Thanks for the link.

Quite the stretch Aravosis makes there, and most don't seem to be buying it.
'Helful enablers' doesn't equate to 'playing a key role'. Lousy headline, silly story.

Just maybe the Bush torture policy was put into play by the BFEE? Blame should go where due.

[Doctor_J]

3. Two words that describe 99% of remaining Repukes

:shrug:

[Puzzler]

4. Well, immorality and foolishness are two pretty good reasons for a lot of people

.

[HereSince1628]

5. Influenza strains emerge, it's a more or less natural process, aiding ill people and protecting

populations are the correct response to influenza outbreaks.

Insulting Mexicans because their nation has more cases than anywhere else, and it fits into an idiotology that demeans Mexicans, is simply xenophobia

Being insulted because it was called Swine flu and you have dietary restrictions about pork is more stupid than not.

Being frightened because you raise and sell pigs and fear an economic loss is recognition that consumers are stupid.

It's influenza. It's here. Let's hope it stays mild, and kills few.

[babylonsister]

7. Agree, it's a flu that I also hope stays mild. I'd like to know if there's

some way to ever know what the overreaction factor by the media is/was. And this, along with many other talking heads, is part of what probably inspired this article...:puke:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/30/severin-immigrants-racist/


Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.

Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston's WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. On his radio show, Severin blamed the swine flu on what he called "some of the world's lowest of primitives in poor Mexico":

So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico -- women with mustaches and VD -- now we have swine flu. ... We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. <...>

(W)hen scoop up some of the world's lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. ... It's millions of leeches from a primitive country. ... Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.


Listen to a compilation of his remarks at link~

Despite his comments, Severin's agent believes that Severin "will be back on the air doing great radio soon."

[HereSince1628]

10. Generally, at the end of influenza season deaths from flu are very low

The emergence in Mexico of what was suspected to be over 100 deaths in a week or two LOOKED VERY VERY BAD. Raising alerts was justified. Due diligence required health agencies to take note and to enhance surveillance and to initiate very modern analyses to help gain understanding of what was happening.

The media, in its interest to sell advertising tells newsy stories with a deliberate truthiness chosen for maximum sales. "Alerts" if well played bring viewers and viewership means ad revenue.

What actually happened to cause the emergence of this strain will probably be researched and debated for several years by scientists/epidemiologists.


What is currently apparent is that this flu scare brought out the xenophobes in the GOP. That republican is the political affiliation of such people should be considered by those who were the targets of the xenophobia and by people who are intolerant of xenophobia. Should a party so measled with haters be a movement that rational caring people should wish to align with and to support with donations? I think not.

[Demeter]

9. Blame It On Smithfield's Factory Hog Farm

[babylonsister]

14. Except that's not necessarily so. Now the newz is reporting

it might have originated in CA, or on the border.

No one knows.

[Shireling]

12. This Professor calls it the "NAFTA Flu"

According to him, these diseases develop because of corporate farming methods.

See link:

http://farmingpathogens.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/the-nafta-flu/#more-131