By Stacy Ries Snyder
Tennessee Republican Congressional Candidate, 5th District
TN Republican Congressional Candidate, 5th District
We are on the precipice of a refugee crisis in America and in Tennessee. There are cases of tuberculosis (TB) and drug resistant TB popping up in America and in Middle Tennessee which is being reintroduced into our areas by refugees. In Tennessee, out of the 1,600 or so refugees that are being brought specifically into our state, around 1,100 will end up in Davidson County. That is a disproportionate amount of refugees in our area – especially when one considers that some of these people are bringing in TB, a disease recently thought to have been eradicated in the United States. One of the reasons TB is spreading once again in our country is because the population infected by this disease is one that traditionally does not seek medical treatment.
There are some who will say that out of the rumored 25 percent of refugees carrying latent TB, only 10 percent of them will actually devolve into full blown TB. Therefore, we really shouldn’t worry about this small percentage of refugees infecting Americans. Let us remember, it was a small percentage of Europeans that introduced smallpox into the Mexican Peninsula and pretty much wiped out their population around 1519. It was also a small percentage of people that infected the Lakota Indians in the Great Lakes region and practically cut their numbers in half in 1639.
We should keep in mind that some vaccines do not actually prevent the disease – they just reduce the severity of the disease.
According to Vaccines Today, “Some immunizations only prevent a particularly severe course of disease. A good example is the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination against tuberculosis. While the vaccine does not protect children from TB infection as such, it does reduce the risk of suffering the worst complications associated with TB.”
The Congressman representing the 5th district- which includes Nashville- should be out in front of this issue, yet Jim Cooper seems to remain silent about this threat. Jim Cooper is aligned with this federal administration which has already declared the desire to bring even more refugees here to America and to our area. In fact, it is understood that Hillary Clinton has stated that she would like to increase the number of refugees entering America by 550 percent. It is time to elect a person from the 5th District whose values line up with the people of this district instead of Washington, D.C. That person is me, Stacy Ries Snyder.
What is the solution? We need to institute a moratorium on refugees coming into our country until we can close the border – and get an accurate count as to how many are already here. We need to enforce the immigration laws currently on the books and begin to look into the possibility of having new immigrants go through an “Ellis Island” type of medical facility to determine if they have a health issue that needs attention, like tuberculosis.
We have many folks that have entered our country illegally, and some who have come here legally and simply overstayed their Visa, and whose whereabouts are unknown. It is imperative that we know who is in the United States – and then take steps to determine their current state of health. At that point, we can more accurately implement changes to insure the safety of American citizens.
For more information about Stacy Ries Snyder, click here.
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