Evidence doesn't support blaming migrants in US for COVID-19 surge

Diverse voices have emerged blaming people entering the US — in particular, migrants crossing the border — for the spread of COVID-19 as the delta variant pushes a surge of cases across the US, NBC News reported Saturday.

But there's no evidence to support such accusations, especially from Republican governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida. Experts believe the impact of these cases does not make a difference in the US health situation.

It is not migratory patterns that illuminate the recent outbreaks of COVID-19, but the low vaccination rates in some states, Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University School of Medicine, told Noticias Telemundo.

"In some states, it isn't clear that there is very much migration right now at all, although there are big outbreaks," Caplan said. "As far as I know, the migration patterns in the past month are more north than south. That does not correlate at all."

"There is a very long history in the United States, sadly, of blaming recent immigrants," Caplan said. "They are always trying to blame outsiders for 'diseases', and there isn't any evidence, particularly right now, when we know why there are big outbreaks in the South."

For Caplan, blaming immigrants - undocumented or not - for the current outbreaks of COVID-19 is not only wrong, but "racist".

The 10 states with the highest rates of coronavirus infections in the past seven days are located in the South, including Florida and Texas, where DeSantis and Abbott are preventing schools from mandating masks.

Caplan said the increase in infections and recent outbreak patterns across the US are actually in response to policies that discourage the use of masks, vaccinations and the isolation of COVID-19 patients although immigrants may be contributing to overall COVID-19 case numbers.

William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, recently told PolitiFact that given the wide transmission already in the US, "the immigration contribution is akin to pouring a bucket of water into a swimming pool."