7th Child Killed By Enterovirus D68 - Conservatives Blame Immigrants

Enterovirus D68, a non-polio virus that can lead to mild to severe respiratory illness, has claimed another young victim. Five month old Lancen Kendall of Phoenix went down for a nap a week ago and never regained consciousness. He succumbed to the illness after five days of hospitalization.

Enterovirus D68 was first classified in 1962 with cases being reported to the CDC since 1987. Respiratory illnesses are spread through contact with respiratory secretions such as saliva, phlegm and sputum. 2014 has seen an unprecedented rise in EV-D68 cases, with approximately eight hundred cases reported.

Like the common cold, EV-D68 has no vaccine and no treatment. If diagnosed doctors usually advise on managing symptoms and in severe cases recommend hospitalization. Infants, toddlers and teenagers, those with underdeveloped immune symptoms, are most likely to be adversely affected and account for all of the deaths from the virus.

5 month old Lancen Kendall of Phoenix recently became the 7th fatality of EV-D68 - Photo courtesy of http://www.azfamily.com/

Conservatives turn enterovirus tragedy into yet another despicable political stunt.

The party of fear has found yet another reason for the American people to hate the President and close the borders. With nothing but pure speculation to draw from, Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama took what he saw as an opportunity to politicize the death of a beautiful baby boy:

Immigration is part of Ebola, is a part of this new virus – I say ‘new’ in quotations marks because it’s relatively new to the degree we’ve seen it in the United States of America that taking the lives of American children, that is causing partial or complete paralysis of American children. All of this is related to immigration because some of these diseases are coming from abroad.

Last time I checked we aren’t dealing with an influx of immigrants from Liberia or Sierra Leone. The Congressman continues:

By way of example, there was a study in 2013 – I think it was called the enterovirus that is causing the paralysis and death of young children in America – that thousands of residents of Central American countries were found with this illness over a year ago in 2013. And because the southern border is not being protected, one has to wonder whether this sudden surge of illegal alien children along with the normal numbers of illegal aliens coming into America might have contributed to the spread of this disease, which heretofore was not very widespread in the United States of America. So all of it’s tied together.

Similar reports have come from Examiner.com, Phyllis Shlafley and droves of imbeciles on conservative page comments that still believe Barry Soetoro is coming to take their guns and inter them in FEMA Camps.

These conservative accusations have absolutely no basis in fact. The party of putrescence has been trying to pin all of our country’s problems on immigration for years now, blaming undocumented workers for unemployment, the deficit and most recently, ebola. The map below is from the CDC’s website and illustrates the threat of enterovirus D68 from October 5th through the 11th. It’s clear that most of the southern border states have a low occurrence of the virus.

Politicizing death is nothing new for the GOP. From Benghazi to James Foley and now children taken suddenly from their parents, there is nothing off-limits to the party of fear.

Lead Image: fox59.com