The deadly EV-D68 enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack Obama's decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence.The evidence includes admissions from top health officials that the epidemic included multiple strains of the virus, and that it appeared simultaneously in multiple independent locations.
The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois to see if they are close relatives to the EV-D68 viruses found in Central America.
Officials "have to do the genetic analysis" to disprove or prove the link, Nora Chapman, an enterovirus scientist at the University of Nebraska, told The Daily Caller.
But there's already more than enough statistical evidence for American citizens to demand that scientists test the viruses to see if Obama's progressive border priorities spread the dangerous contagion throughout the country during 2014.
So far, that virus has been found in nine American kids who died from illness, has apparently inflicted unprecedented polio-like paralysis in roughly 50 kids, and has put hundreds of young American kids into hospital emergency wards and intensive care units throughout more than 40 states.
A series of government researchers, health experts and academics refused to comment, or else urged self-censorship, when they were pressed by TheDC for statistical and scientific data that would exonerate Obama and his deputies.
"I would just steer away from that— it is not helpful, so why bring it up," said Lone Simonsen, a professor at George Washington University's Department of Global Health and the research director of the university's Global Epidemiology Program. "A better angle [is] 'We're just learning what this outbreak is all about,'" she told TheDC.
Columbia University researcher Rafal Tokarz, one of the nation's top experts on the EV-D68 virus, declined to comment to TheDC about the impact of Obama's border policies. "I cannot comment… and at this time it would not be appropriate for me to do so… I would really rather not comment," he said in email conversations.
The issue is dangerous for scientists because it could spike existing public opposition to the unpopular effort by Obama, Democrats and business-backed Republicans to increase the migration of foreign nationals — including many foreign scientists — into the United States. That inflow is a top priority for the Democratic leaders, who have the power to make life difficult for grant-dependent American scientists who discover politically damaging information.
That sensitivity showed up Oct. 16, when a top staffer for Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a champion of increased immigration from Latin America, denounced the evidence for an Obama-disease link: "Rush [Limbaugh], don't let facts dissuade you! Enterovirus outbreak likely not coming from immigrants," Guttierez communications director Douglas Rivlin tweeted, while linking to an article that tried to stigmatize investigations into any possible link.
On Oct. 29, The New York Times produced a vague article about EV-D68′s possible role in the paralysis cases, headlined "Doctors Mystified by Paralysis in Dozens of Children." The article quoted Mark Pallansch, who heads the viral diseases unit at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying "we don't have a single clear hypothesis that's the leading one at this point." He also said that American kids have less than a one-in-a-million chance of being paralyzed. The Times ignored the possible link to Obama's border policy.
But public trust in government would nudge upward if there is strong scientific evidence against the widespread concern that Obama recklessly loosed the EV-D68 epidemic. The Snopes.com site tried to debunk the idea, but could only reject it as "problematic."
The EV-D68 controversy is a weaker version of the Ebola fight, where Obama has opposed stringent federal and state barriers to the arrival of foreign travelers who may be carrying Ebola. The EV-D68 virus is far, far less dangerous than Ebola, but it also may be harder to counter because it has now spread throughout the United States.
There is no vaccine for EV-D68, so health experts expect more victims.
| The article illustrates the dangers of the politicization of science by politicians. In this case, this acts as censorship to finding the truth about wrongly-directed public policy for the purpose of hustling votes. Let's have genetic testing of the virus. |
| Full disclosure: I'm heavily involved in EV68 projects at my University. Fact: EV68 has been in the U.S. since at least 2008, per CDC reports from 2011 and 2013. It's been around likely for longer than that. While I wouldn't discount the possibility of, er, "population shifts" allowing the virus to spread, this is a highly contagious virus, like other enteroviruses and rhinoviruses, and doesn't need much help. It doesn't help our cause much to make wild accusations. We snicker at the progressives when they use science way out of context. We shouldn't do the same. |