{"id":20904,"date":"2019-08-24T12:30:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T12:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2019\/08\/24\/opinion-we-are-risking-health-and-life\/"},"modified":"2019-08-24T12:30:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-24T12:30:38","slug":"opinion-we-are-risking-health-and-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/opinion-we-are-risking-health-and-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: We Are Risking Health And Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Simon<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n <\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n Enlarge this image<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n A sign for Flu Shots at a CVS Pharmacy in Boston.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rick Friedman\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/b>
\n hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Rick Friedman\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s flu shot season. Signs alerting and urging you to get a flu shot now may be up at your pharmacy or workplace. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends<\/a> everyone over 6 months old get a flu shot by the end of October, so the vaccine can begin to work before the influenza season begins.<\/p>\n

But this week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said<\/a> it would not give flu shots to the thousands of migrants now in its detention centers.<\/p>\n

“Due to the short-term nature of CBP holding and the complexities of operating vaccination programs,” the agency said in a statement, “neither CBP nor its medical contractors administer vaccinations to those in our custody.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Bruce Y. Lee of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called the department’s edict, “short-term thinking.”<\/p>\n

“Holding a number of unvaccinated people in a crowded space could be like maintaining an amusement park for flu viruses,” he wrote for Forbes<\/a>. He explains that viruses could spread through the congested, often cold, and unsanitary detention camps, and get passed between those people who’ve been detained \u2014 weak, tired and dusty \u2014 as well as those who work there. <\/p>\n