In 2005, Dobbs reported that Mexican immigration, in addition to all of its other perceived problems, had generated an outbreak of leprosy in this country over the previous three years. Viewers were told that the number of cases had reached 7,000, far more than in the past.
A few weeks ago, Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes asked Dobbs about reporting numbers like these, which appear to be plainly false. “Well, I can tell you this,” Dobbs replied. “If we reported it, it’s a fact.” The 60 Minutes report renewed interest in the two-year-old leprosy report, and a controversy has been brewing ever since.
Just to be clear, Dobbs’ report was wrong. From the NYT’s David Leonhardt column: (via Norwegianity)
To sort through all this, I called James L. Krahenbuhl, the director of the National Hansen’s Disease Program, an arm of the federal government. Leprosy in the United States is indeed largely a disease of immigrants who have come from Asia and Latin America. And the official leprosy statistics do show about 7,000 diagnosed cases — but that’s over the last 30 years, not the last three.
The peak year was 1983, when there were 456 cases. After that, reported cases dropped steadily, falling to just 76 in 2000. Last year, there were 137.
Leonhardt's piece documents repeated Dobbs falsehoods and explains why his demagoguery matters. Take a look.
