On the swine flu and Latinos

The Wikipedia has some interesting data under the article on the Black Death that swept Europe in the Middle Ages. It says:

Because fourteenth century healers were at a loss to explain the cause, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for the plague’s emergence. . . There were many attacks against Jewish communities. In August of 1349, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were exterminated. In February of that same year, Christians murdered two thousand Jews in Strasbourg. By 1351, sixty major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed.

Just yesterday was the first confirmed swine flu death in the United States. It happened in Texas, although the baby was infected in Mexico. We know that there are confirmed infections in a few other parts of the United States. But, we are modern people, and so there is no chance of such a backlash as happened in the Middle Ages, is there? Well, I wish that were true.

Michael Savage, a former cable channel newsperson for one of the major networks who also has a radio show, said:

Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico. . . Could this be a terrorist attack through Mexico? Could our dear friends in the radical Islamic countries have concocted this virus and planted it in Mexico knowing that you, [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano, would do nothing to stop the flow of human traffic from Mexico? . . . How do you protect yourself? What can you do? I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, and I don’t give a damn if you don’t like what I’m going to say. I’m going to have no contact anywhere with an illegal alien, and that starts in the restaurants. . . I will have no any illegal alien workers around me. I will not have them in any of my properties, I will not have them anywhere near me.

Neal Boortz commented on his radio show:

What better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans? Right? I mean, one out of every 10 people born in Mexico is already living up here, and the rest are trying to get here. So you give — you give — you let this virus just spread in Mexico, where they don’t have a CDC. . . So if you want to get that epidemic into this country, get it going real good and hot south of the border. And, you know, then just spread a rumor that there’s construction jobs available somewhere, and here it comes. Because we’re not gonna do anything to stop them from coming across the border.

Speaking of illegal immigrants, Bill O’Reilly, commented on his radio show: “You might be right, each one of those people is a biological weapon.”

Now let Fr. Orthoduck comment that there is no doubt whatsoever that this strain of the swine flu appears to have mutated in Mexico. But, the CDC has already tracked the cases in New York and already knows that they did not come from illegal immigrants coming into the USA, but from USA citizens vacationing down in Mexico. In fact, because of spring break travel to Mexico by many of our students, the swine flu may be spread throughout the USA much farther than we yet know.

Will the swine flu kill more people this year in the USA than die during a normal flu season? No one knows yet. And, it has certainly hit Mexico hard. But, Fr. Orthoduck is worried for his friend Fr. Obregón, who is a Latino. With the radio shows and TV shows bringing up this supposed illegal immigrant connection, should the swine flu become bad how long will it be before the blame crosses from illegal immigrants to anyone who has a discernible accent or the wrong cast on their faces? Lest you say that it cannot happen, look at my first paragraph above and then look at the quotes that are already on the air.