Shock Jocks’ Vitriol in Health Emergency is Wrong, Dumb, and Dangerous

May 22nd, 2009

The cacophony of vitriol emanating from shock jocks in response to the H1N1 influenza crisis is now widely known.  Instead of acknowledging the H1N1 influenza crisis for what it is-a health emergency-they have used the rise of this flu as a golden moment to elevate their hate mongering and fear-based smear campaigns against Latino immigrants. 

As is often the case with this crowd, they're wrong on all counts.  First of all, the disease apparently entered our country through U.S. citizens who had visited Mexico. 
 
Moreover, according to the experts, demonizing immigrants only exacerbates the problem by making it harder to detect and manage outbreaks.  A series of reports explains how attaching blame to a certain group of people puts everyone in greater jeopardy. 

Monica Schoch-Spana, Ph.D., and Ann Norwood, M.D., Stigma: Its Harm and Its Remedy in Outbreaks Like Swine Flu, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Monica Schoch-Spana, Ph.D., Ann Norwood, M.D., Nidhi Bouri, and Kunal Rambhia, Social Stigma Attached to "Swine Flu"-An FAQ for U.S. Elected Leaders and Health Officials, Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Barbara Reynolds, Ph.D., CDC Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) Best Practices:  Stigmatization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Ironically, for a crowd that's so fond of saying that we should "just enforce the law" by calling for immigrants to be harassed or denied treatment, they're also inciting law-breaking, as pointed out by this statement from the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights on the protection of civil rights in the national response to H1N1 influenza.

Loud voices from the anti-immigrant crowd are often wrong, dumb, or guilty of inciting unlawful acts.  In this case, they're all three.