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November 25, 2014 01:09 PM UTC

Sen. Marble delivers falsehood that immigrants bring eradicated "disease"

  • 20 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Your Senate majority leadership in action – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Sen. Vicki Marble (R).
Sen. Vicki Marble (R).

Warning: KLZ talk-radio host Ken Clark tells me the following blog post is a "hit piece consisting of lies and deceit in order to continue to manipulate the public and your readers at the expense of an elected official who is simply tying to protect her constituents." If only this were true….

The elected official Clark refers to is Republican State Sen. Vicki Marble. At issue is a searing falsehood Marble delivered to Clark on his nooner Freedom 560 show on KLZ 560-AM Nov. 19:

Marble: “Those illegals infiltrate into the system, of the United States, and they bring the disease. They bring whatever from across the border — things we haven’t seen in decades and thought we eradicated. Our whole country is at risk.”

A lengthy search (still in progress) for a factual basis backing up Marble yielded nothing, and I asked Clark why he didn't correct her on air:

Clark: The evidence is overwhelming that we are facing a health risk due to our administrations failure to protect our boarders and as a result are continuing to put our citizens at risk. Senator Marble is 100% correct when she states this fact and by failing to accept the truth and the evidence you are simply attempting to attack a public servant rather than seek the truth. She has been briefed by the Colorado Center for Disease Control as well and is privy to information that is not public, maybe you should try to get some information from them. [BigMedia emphasis]

I asked the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment if there was any evidence that undocumented immigrants are bringing any disease, much less ones that we thought were eradicated, into Colorado.

"CDPHE is not aware of any such evidence," was the simple answer from Mark Salley, CDPHE spokesperson.

Clark provided me with numerous links, none of which named a specific illness thought to be eradicated and brought to the United States by undocumented immigrants.

You can find Marble's comment at the 2:45 mark on this audio recording: https://soundcloud.com/bigmedia-org/state-sen-vicki-marble-claims-immigrants-bring-eradicated-disease-to-us

Like other people, undocumented immigrants get sick with chicken pox, scabies, lice, and even tuberculosis, but, again, there's no evidence that they are spreading these illnesses in our country. There's speculation, yes, but nothing much more.

Marble's comment goes beyond the usual Tea-Party regurgitation of this speculation by accusing immigrants of introducing eradicated diseases, raising the specter of polio, lepers, etc.

This summer, Tea Party activists were up in arms about diseases allegedly being brought by migrant children crossing the border into the U.S. These concerns were shown to be basesless.

The New York Times reported in July:

Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said there have been only three cases of tuberculosis reported among the undocumented children who have come into Texas. More than 1,000 cases are reported annually in Texas. She also said that while there have been cases of scabies among the children, “it’s not outside the norm of what we would expect and not exotic to the United States.”

What does seem to spread in the United States is not diseases from immigrants but falsehoods from talk-radio hosts. KNUS host Peter Boyles broke the misinformation back in September that undocumented immigrants are spreading disease in Colorado.

And now the rot has jumped to KLZ. Maybe it's time to fumigate the offices at both KLZ and KNUS?

For transcripts and more info visit the bigmediablog.

Comments

20 thoughts on “Sen. Marble delivers falsehood that immigrants bring eradicated “disease”

  1. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Vicky gets her public health information from that same woman who told Michelle Bachman that the HPV vaccine causes mental retardation.  Remember, science is definitely not their forte.

  2. Preposterous ignorance will never be eradicated — Sen. Marble can't blame her wretchedness on "illegals infiltrat[ing] into [our] system."

    On the bright side, maybe they will bring some fried chicken for this maroon and her buddies?!?

    [It's sad that, at this season of plenty, there's no shortage of utter fools.  I've never heard any of Clark before, but he's apparently a tool of the highest [lowest?] order — almost on par with Moderatus.]

    1. Can you think of anyone who would be more representative of THAT caucus than she?  Ellen Roberts would stick out like a sore thumb.  Marble is typical of these freaks (Cadman, Lundborg, the Mustache Guy, Waters-Woods and Neville).

  3. It kind of slid past me the other day that Marble is their new caucus chair; which means she's going to get a fair amount of press coverage. I'm feeling better about 16 already.

    1. ditto…….They won in '14 because they kept their nut jobs out of sight.  There wasn't a Todd Akin, Christine O'Donnell, Richard Mourdock, or Sharon Angle to be found.  (The Dems, on the other hand, had to deal with Bruce Braley sounding like an idiot.)

  4. Thanks for catching this, Jason.  The "immigrants bring  ____ disease to America canard is as old as it is cynically used by those who wish to keep us very afraid.  Here are some examples of fear-mongering against immigrants over the last 100 years:

    • The Irish brought cholera.
    • Chinese had bubonic plague
    • European Jews had trachoma
    • Haitians brought HIV/AIDS

    It is very sad to see that the Republican Caucus Chairperson is promoting this garbage talking point right out of the gate.

    1. Polio is considered eradicated in this country, though not worldwide.
      Rubella is also considered to be eradicated in the US.
      Diptheria is perhaps not officially eradicated, but most years there are no cases in the US.
      Cholera is down to less than 6 cases per year.

      And while Measles and Mumps aren't eradicated, they are generally < 100 cases per year these days, with occasional outbreaks.

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