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Sunday, December 31, 2017

US longevity and illegal immigration - By Marion DS Dreyfus

The always unpleasant and marginally factual Washington Post asserts the population of the US is dying on average years before our wealthy cousins abroad, nations also on the up and aspiring up.
The difference is that the WaPo genius fails to refer to the singular element that differentiates us from most nations:  We have been letting in over a million Other for years, many of them below the educational and health horizons we assume for locals. In addition to that number swelling the ranks upwardly striving, the open sesame exists for all intents and purposes for approximately 30 million unbidden noncitizens, coming in willy-nilly, without any vetting, without documents, and without health certifications civil nations  pride themselves on maintaining.
From 2000 to 2017, approximately 16 million illegals have surged in, stopped by neither Presidents Bush nor Obama.
These figures represent not only a general lowering of national IQ and professionalism, they represent also people whose culinary, sociological and cultural values vary considerably from our generally elevated standards of health and keeping up with the latest views on optimal self-care.
Endless influxes of strangers without the same regard for good nutrition, sleep, avoiding wellness pitfalls almost axiomatically translates into more maternal mortality, early expiry, smoking, diabetes and other ageing diseases that played little part in the consciousness of these newcomers, sneak-ins or welcome-mat types.
Millions of such people lower the threshold of a nation, obviously. Japan, which stringently monitors its visitors and citizens with eagle-like tenacity, permits few outsiders, and even wealthy incomers cannot boast of acceptance in the land of the setting sun, even with a perilously low native birthright. So, the average Japanese lives far longer than most other nationals in even wealthy nations do. The downside is that they are now among the oldest populations in the civilized world.
Presto. The shortfall in years is not due to scurrilous policies of the current sterling administration working so hard to get us back on track.
The early demises are due, rather, to millions of noncitizens bringing their native lack of longevity into the good old USA. Lower rates of maternal and pregnancy attention mean that more mothers die of complications and poor planning as well as belated physician care.
Drugs contribute to earlier death stats. Gang warfare, among them MS13, for instance, brings the mortality rate down another notch or two.
Government statistics do not yet collate (or so we are told) such salient aspects of the avalanche of “migrants,” “asylees” and “refugees” we are entertaining all over the 50 states.
All the fails go into the one pot, and the Washington Post editors forgot to fact check the most obvious contributors to the downward curve of national longevity.
Among other goals set for a foundation with which I am associated is the goal of extending the too-short lives of African women from sub-Saharan countries, where living conditions conspire against managing to have a normal 70 or 80-year time on Earth. President Trump has no part of responsibility for that, Same as he has no responsibility in one short year for any kind of meaningful stat to do with health and life expectancy.
These areas are multipartite, with numerous streams of causality contributing to any measurement after a determined period of time. One must consider many elements before a scientist can make any reasonable assumptions and formulate a fair theory of etiology.
Hat tip: Toss out those who came aboard and brung us their hometown enviro woes -- then watch the lifespan stats re-jigger all the way back where they were trending when President Reagan thought he had licked the invasive foreigner problem by declaring a last-ditch amnesty. The “last” amnesty we were ever to accord.
Which just set the odometer back temporarily to neutral. Meanwhile, the lifespans are still going to keep drifting downward, so long as we keep the borders porous and the opposition party devotedly bringing blankets, a cup of Joe and all the country’s delightful, flashy ‘entitlements’ to the crowded welcome wagon on the Rio Grande.