Dear fellow doctors, health care professionals, and health professions students:
It’s flu season, and the federal government is refusing to vaccinate people in their detention centers. On November 5th, we wrote a letter requesting access to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) camp to provide free influenza vaccination. The letter was addressed to the secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.
They have so far ignored the letter.
We would bring the qualified, licensed physicians. We would bring the doses of flu vaccine, at no cost to the government. All they need to do is allow us entry.
Join us in calling on the federal government to allow us to bring flu vaccines to the people held in a migrant detention camp.
Three children in CBP custody died from influenza last season. This is 9 times higher than the expected death rate for this disease. Despite this, CBP has repeatedly stated they will not provide vaccinations. This is just one, small example of the well-documented medical neglect in these camps.
These detention camps should not exist in the first place. While they remain, let’s hold our government accountable for their medical neglect. Join us as we stand for the basic dignity and safety of the vulnerable people in these camps.
-- Marie, Bonnie, and Danielle
PETITION STATEMENT:
We, the undersigned medical doctors, health professionals, and health professions students, call on Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Alex Azar, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to allow Doctors for Camp Closure to offer influenza vaccine at a migrant detention center, in accordance with current, evidence-based standards of preventive health care.
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