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What’s Up Doc?: A call to action: Stop our government sanctioned child abuse now

The Patriot Ledger - 12/24/2019

In 2014, I was privileged to have worked alongside members of the U.S.Public Health Service, USPHS, to help provide medical care, medical screening and immunizations to unaccompanied minors from other countries that had entered the U.S. illegally. The families of these children had made what they felt was the most loving decision possible, trying to lift their children from a dangerous and bleak future to one that had promise of a better life.

Our mission, and our sole priority, was the health and welfare of these children. The children were in our facility for about three days in order to receive initial care, including vaccinations, and evaluation, and then were expeditiously processed and united with family they had in the U.S. or placed in a situation where they would be cared for and begin taking steps to improve their futures. The conditions for these children were not ideal, but they did have mattresses to sleep on, recreational opportunities -- in fact, our team went out and bought soccer balls, games and other materials to encourage activities -- personal hygiene items, etc.

This kind of mission is not without precedent. For example, the USPHS provided medical care and medical screening for immigrants coming through Ellis Island in the early 20th century.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the abusive way our government was treating children at the border, calling out the cruel and unusual practice of forcibly separating children from their families, as well as the deplorable conditions and actions they were subjected to.

But it seems our government has now doubled down on this abuse by denying these children flu vaccinations. Prior to September 2018, it had been over a decade since any child had died in Border Patrol custody, but at least three children have recently died of the flu, and the flu season for this year is just starting. Yet, our government is willfully and maliciously withholding flu vaccination from these children despite:

It being well known that living in close quarters, as these children are forced to do, is a huge risk factor for the flu (in addition to multiple other infectious diseases) to spread.The fact that our own Centers for Disease Control -- the CDC, the authoritative government agency specifically tasked with recommending certain medical best practices -- recommends the flu vaccine for virtually every child over age 6 months.So this means one government agency, the Border Patrol, is intentionally withholding a vaccination specifically recommended by another agency, the CDC, for a vulnerable population being held under especially dangerous conditions.

Why is this? Has our country lost all humanity? When did child abuse become an acceptable public policy? Why is the present administration doubling down on these cruel policies?

In the spirit of the holidays and in the name of humanity, I am demanding that our government immediately stop these abusive practices and treat these children with the compassion and empathy that all children everywhere deserve. Please add your voice to mine and call your Congressional representative and senator and insist that this abuse stop now.

Jeff Hersh, Ph.D., M.D., can be reached at DrHersh@juno.com.

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