A fake story is making the rounds on Facebook, tricking people into thinking that the outbreak of measles in the United States has been caused by immigrants from South America.
It reports, “A Facebook meme incorrectly blames the measles outbreak in the U.S. on immigrants from South America. The virus, however, was eliminated there in 2016. The recent uptick in measles cases is due to travelers returning from countries with outbreaks.”
You can read the full measles-and-migrants story here.
It is sadly ironic that this potentially fatal U.S. measles outbreak, prompted by debunked stories about vaccines, is bing used to reignite false stories about immigrants and disease. This is from “100 Questions and Answers About Immigrants to the U.S.”
Do immigrants bring diseases into the country?
This has been claimed in political campaigns, but there have not been large outbreaks. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “The sheer number of people who live, work, and travel between the United States and Mexico has led to a sharing of culture and commerce, as well as the easy transportation of infectious diseases. The large movement of people across the United States and Mexico border has led to an increase in health issues, particularly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.” The United States and Mexico work jointly, the CDC reports, to “detect, notify, investigate, and respond to illness reports and communicable disease cases.”
