Epidemiologist says US is not doing enough to monitor health status of border crossers

Senior Research Scientist and Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health Dr. Harvey Risch said Friday that the United States isn't doing enough to monitor the health of immigrants coming across the southern border. 

"We are not doing enough to monitor the health status and health histories of the people who come into the country, especially at the southern border," Risch said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.

Over 189,000 migrants arrived at the southern border just in the month of February.

As some continue to raise concerns about viruses and diseases such as COVID-19, Risch said it's important to remember a lot of them are taken in stride.

"We've certainly had epidemics of – low level epidemics – of tuberculosis and antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis at times in various inner city places in the country," he said. "These come and go. We take them in stride, and by and large, we take almost everything in stride as a society."

Examples he used included the common cold and the flu, comparing them to other dangers like gun violence and drug abuse.