Family physicians in the state of California have warned federal officials that proposed changes to immigration rules could endanger public health by weakening herd immunity, particularly in the state where one-in-two children have a parent who was born overseas.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration proposed changing a federal rule that immigration experts claim would make defining an immigrant dependent on government support more ambiguous, which could then see them deemed a ‘public charge’ and potentially prevent them from gaining permanent residency in the US. The dean of the UC Davis King Hall law school, Kevin Johnson, said that temporary visitors to the country who had made legal use of public benefits, including health benefits, would then find it harder to get a green card, and thus deter non-citizens from using them.
Earlier this week, a statement opposing the proposed rule was released by the California Academy of Family Physicians, which has 10,000 members. It said that illness does not discriminate by immigration status and that they are already finding it hard to get immigrant adults and children to come in for flu shots at the start of the flu season, according to the association’s board president, Dr Lisa Ward.
Complications from the flu kill thousands of people in the US every year. The last flu season was the worst since 1976, with an estimated death toll of 80,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.