Ingraham Blames Migrants For Measles Outbreak Caused By Anti-Vaxxers
Laura Ingraham
On the February 26 edition of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham weaponized a recent measles outbreak in Florida to baselessly malign migrants.
At least eight children in Broward County have contracted the virus, at least six of them at one elementary school, and an additional adult case was confirmed in Polk County. Experts say low vaccination rates are to blame. According to the most recent publicly available data, only 91.7 percent of Florida kindergarteners received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, short of the 95 percent vaccination goal.
While the Broward County health department is still investigating the origin of the outbreak, Ingraham contended that unvaccinated migrants were responsible for the increase in outbreaks in Florida and around the country.
“Florida has seen the latest outbreak, with nine cases so far, so it's not just the spread of violent crime across the country caused by the open border, it’s the potential spread of contagious diseases,” she claimed.
Ingraham then brought on Fox News medical contributor Marc Siegel to fearmonger that the outbreak, supposedly caused by migrants, “cannot be contained."
Ingraham and Siegel failed to note, however, that in response to the outbreak, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo defied standard medical guidance, allowing parents to choose whether to send their unvaccinated and exposed children to school, rather than recommending the standard 21-day quarantine.
Suggesting migrants are culpable for disease outbreaks is a racist dog whistle, but it’s unsurprising for a network intent on demonizing immigration as a political cudgel against the Biden administration.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.
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