Right Opinion Dead and Paralyzed American Children DEMAND Answers

On Oct. 7 the Patriot Post published my column, "Enterovirus D68: A Call to Arms.“ It was a plea aimed at investigative journalists and dedicated epidemiologists, asking them to determine whether what is now known as the EVD-68 enterovirus could be directly attributed to the massive influx of illegal alien children orchestrated by the Obama administration last summer. My call has been partially answered. "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," reports The Daily Caller.

The Caller is careful to make the distinction between the genetic analysis required to completely confirm the relationship, and the "more than enough statistical evidence” that should compel the American public to demand a true accounting of the epidemic, one that has apparently expanded its deadly and paralytic reach: when I wrote about it a month ago, I spoke of five fatalities and 15 cases of paralysis-like symptoms attributed to EV-D68. The numbers are now nine deaths and more than 50 children afflicted with full or partial paralysis that may be permanent.

The Caller also updated the number of illegal children and their families granted entry into America. I had it at 66,000 since October of 2013. The Caller went back as far as 2011 to show how the trickle became a flood. That year there were 993 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who were “encountered” by border officers, increasing to 10,146 in Oct. 2012, another 20,805 in Oct 2013 and 51,705 this year, totaling 86,049 children and youths – nearly all of whom were “teenagers or young adults,” the Caller reveals.

This reality pokes a giant hole in Obama’s characterization – aided and abetted by his media lapdogs – that this was a humanitarian crisis predominantly endured by thousands of innocent waifs. In remarks following a meeting with Central American presidents – including Guatemalan President Perez Molina, who reached a pact with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to facilitate the travel of illegals to America – Obama explained how his administration has “great compassion for these children” and that he wanted “to make sure that they are cared for the way all children should be cared for.”

So how did he “care” for them? At a Senate hearing last July, Health and Human Services Acting Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, Mark Greenberg, admitted that it was government policy to hand the illegal children over to relatives and guardians without inquiring about their status. The reason why has now become apparent: Executive Office of Immigration Review documents reveal that a whopping 94 percent of cases dealing with the removal of illegal aliens in family units were made “in absentia” during a two-and-a-half month period from mid-July to early October.

Last month the AP provided a larger snapshot, putting the overall no-show total at 70 percent, and estimating that the Obama administration “released roughly 41,000 members of immigrant families who subsequently failed to appear at federal immigration offices.” They further noted the administration would not say how many Central American families it had released into the U.S., and that “senior U.S. officials directly familiar with the issue, including at the Homeland Security Department and White House, had dodged the answer on at least seven occasions over two weeks, alternately saying that they did not know the figure or didn’t have it immediately at hand.”

Liars one and all, and American children and their parents have paid an unconscionable price for that mendacity.

As the Caller notes, the statistical coincidence between the latest – and by far the largest – outbreak of EV-D68 arrived last August and coincided with the big inflow of illegals. “On Oct. 24, the number of confirmed infections reached 998. That’s 300 times the infection rate seen in the 33-year period from 1970 to 2003,” the paper explains, even as it noted outbreaks in several states pre-dated the opening of schools. As I noted in my piece on the subject, 28,000 children had been dispersed to 116 shelters in at least 16 states, and many of those shelter locations correspond with the outbreak of the virus. I further noted the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) waived the disease-screening process required for legal immigrants, further accommodating the influx of illegals.

The Caller gets into the science of the outbreak, explaining there are three subtypes of EVD-68 called “clades,” and that these multiple incarnations of the virus “would be further evidence that a population movement triggered the outbreaks.”

So why don’t we know for certain? The Caller gets to the despicable and politically motived heart behind the calculated silence:

“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.”

Moreover, when the Caller pressed the CDC for details about the number of deaths and infections on a state-by-state basis, they refused to comply. When they asked the CDC to explain the multi-strain, multi-city outbreak, Steve Oberste, chief of the polio and picornavirus laboratory branch at the agency, was utterly disingenuous. “There is no evidence that unaccompanied children brought EV-D68 to the United States; we are not aware of any of these children testing positive for the virus,” he insisted.

Unaware is not remotely the same as saying there is no link at all.

The Caller notes that when there was “political consensus for an investigation” of other outbreaks, researchers “actively looked for untested virus samples and reanalyzed older virus samples to complete the fingerprint matching.” This time, however using gene-sequencing technology to prove or disprove a genetic link with the current strain of EVD-68 found in Latin America, or differences with older strains found in the U.S. prior to 2009, is “not a priority for the government-funded researchers.” “The interest right now is to understand the behavior of the virus and whether or not this virus has changed its infectiousness or its virulence, its severity, since the previous years… that’s No. 1,” said Eden Wells Clinical Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. "Our issue is not to say ‘It came from here or there or wherever.’“

In an effort to debunk the connection, Wells earlier noted that enterovirus was first detected in the U.S. in 1962, and the specific EV-D68 strain in 1987. "I think that this really sort of argues against the fact that this is a new virus introduced by anybody,” Wells argued.

Nobody is saying it’s new. However, rarity is another subject altogether. Doctors from the Division of Viral Diseases at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases published a study posted on the CDC’s own website. It states that while 52,812 enterovirus detections were reported between 1970-2005, “Enterovirus 68 is one of the most rarely reported serotypes, with only 26 reports throughout the 36-year study period.”

This year? “On Oct. 24, the number of confirmed infections reached 998,” the Caller reports–updating the figure of 691 from my report a month earlier.

Nonetheless Wells, the CDC, the Obama administration and our utterly corrupt and disinterested mainstream media would like Americans to believe the arrival of thousands of illegals from Central American nations where EV-D68 is far more common, and the confirmation of 998 cases now afflicting mostly American children, is strictly coincidence.

Try selling that to the parents of dead and paralyzed children, even as this administration purposefully avoids finding out for certain.

My fellow Americans, this burgeoning scandal has the potential to dwarf all of the other scandals in which the Obama administration is embroiled. It is almost inconceivable to witness the level of calculated disinterest in dead and paralyzed American children. In what universe does something like this get swept under the ideologically-motivated rug? Make no mistake: an indisputable link between the administration’s effort to allow thousands of illegal entry into Americans and their dispersal throughout the nation with a deadly and crippling virus rises to the level of criminality on the part of this administration, including the president himself.

The same president who has promised to unilaterally legalize millions of illegals, and the one, along with members of his administration, the Democrat Party and a contingency of equally pathetic Establishment Republicans who can all feign surprise that most illegals won’t show up for their immigration hearings, but who all know better – and always did.

I intend to keep the heat on this issue whenever the opportunity presents itself. I applaud The Daily Caller for their tireless effort and their courage. Now it’s time for others in the media and medical community to step up. To use a Democrat cliche tellingly absent from this issue, “if it saves the life of one child,” it’s worth it.

Isn’t it?

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