An outbreak of chicken pox in New York City is forcing schools to face an uncomfortable fact about all the new migrant students. Most of them aren’t vaccinated. COVID-19 jabs aside, these kids haven’t been inoculated against much of anything. Shot records are a requirement for citizens to enroll. Migrant kids who came in with the invading horde simply don’t have them. Nobody processing them through gave them the required shots, either.
Outbreak in New York City
The New York Post isn’t saying for certain but there has possibly been “one outbreak already.” They do confirm, “the flood of migrant families into New York City is forcing schools to accept children who lack required vaccinations.”
The epicenter is Simon Baruch Middle School in Gramercy Park.
The middle school’s principal sent out a notice on January 25 stating that the facility “had a chickenpox case” which means “students not vaccinated for the illness could not attend school.”
https://t.co/8MpSLg5sR4 kids from Harlem couldn’t play @NYCSchools sports or in band bc of covid shot but migrant kids are coming to school w/chickenpox. I think these kids should be in school I just can’t unsee blatant hypocrisy & don’t understand why nyc kids are treated worse.
— (Formerly) Brooklyn Mom (@graciefacelove) February 4, 2023
For the next few days, one parent observed, the class in question had five fewer students. All migrants. While one case is not an “outbreak,” all by itself, parents are concerned one’s brewing.
“When you are talking now about hundreds of children entering a school and coming from countries where we know the same childhood vaccinations are not available— it’s hard to not see where vulnerable families could be put at risk,” the Simon Baruch parent explains.
City Health officials are worried about the possibility of an outbreak as well.
Not a single shot
Top city health official, Dr. Ted Long, had a few words to say at a recent city council meeting. He told city leaders that they’re seeing “a surprising number of migrant children who had never had a single shot.” The ones getting off the buses from El Paso. Even the ones who had some of their shots, can’t prove it.
That’s a recipe for outbreak disaster. Migrants like Carolina Chicaisa want officials to take their word for it. She walked up from Ecuador and made it to New York January 9. She “lost proof of her son Jareth’s shots on their journey.” They all say that.
Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas are the ones responsible for the current crisis. They could have provided all the necessary injections while processing the migrants through the border.
Advocates were furious with the city over the migrant encampment removal outside of the Watson Hotel #migrant #shelter #nyc pic.twitter.com/LVhGmrM5UU
— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) February 2, 2023
The reality is they weren’t even prepared to feed or house the mass wave of invaders who came pouring through. Dr. Long serves as executive director of the NYC Test & Trace Corps. He’s worried. It’s not if we will have a big outbreak, it’s when.
He points out that around 11,000 migrant children have enrolled in their local schools since last summer. The Health Department tracks outbreaks of illnesses like chickenpox but refused to say how many it has recorded in city schools since September or comment on the Simon Baruch situation. That suggests they might be covering up an outbreak because it’s politically controversial.
One thing is certain. Department of Education rules declare firmly that “schools must accept kids living in temporary housing, including asylum seekers, even if they can’t immediately show vaccination or academic records.” That means there are probably a whole bunch of kids in school across America right now who haven’t had shots for chickenpox, DTaP, MMR, polio, and hepatitis B.
