JUDY WOODRUFF: One of the best ways to prevent spreading coronavirus is handwashing.
But, in some places, like Flint, Michigan, that is not a simple task.
Flint, which is majority African-American and largely poor, is still reeling from the
2014 water contamination crisis, and now it's grappling with a new public health emergency.
John Yang is back, speaking with the doctor who helped to expose the water crisis about
how this pandemic is hitting the city.
JOHN YANG: Judy, in Flint, Michigan, the coronavirus pandemic isn't the only health problem the
folks there are dealing with right now. It comes on top of the ongoing issue of elevated
lead levels in the drinking water, a problem that marked its sixth anniversary recently.
Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was one of the earliest to sound the alarm
about the water problem. She joins us by Skype from her home.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, thank you so much for joining us.
And I should note, one reason why you are at home and not seeing patients right now
is that you have -- you have recovered from coronavirus. How are you feeling now?
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA, Michigan State University: Yes.
Knock on wood, I am feeling so much better. I still can't taste or smell, but the scary
respiratory cough, shortness of breath things are all gone.
JOHN YANG: I was just looking at these statistics at the Genesee Health Department's Web site.
They say that 40 percent of the cases in Genesee County, which is where Flint is, are in the
city of Flint, even though Flint accounts for only about 25 percent of the population.
Why do you think that is? And do you think it could have something to do with the water
crisis?
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA: That's really being seen throughout the country in terms of the
disparities of who is getting most impacted by this crisis.
We are also seeing very much in Detroit. Michigan's the kind of -- one of the hardest-hit states
in this pandemic. Outside of the Detroit are, it's Genesee County that has seen a significant
number of cases and deaths, including our hospital security guard and many of our loved
ones that we work with on a daily basis.
So, why is this happening? Why are we seeing these disparities? And, absolutely, we cannot
rule out the water crisis in Flint and also in Detroit. Many families, and up to 5,000
families in Flint could not even wash their hands. They did not have running water to
wash their hands.
And, I mean, what is the most important thing to do to kill the virus right now? Look, we
can actually kill the virus with soap and water. But we can't do that in many places,
including in Flint.
JOHN YANG: When we were in Flint, we met a young boy who had had -- developed rashes
and blisters from being bathed in the water when he was a very young at the beginning
of this water crisis.
He's afraid of the water. He doesn't want to deal with the water. How do you deal with
that in a place where you don't trust what's coming out of the tap, and yet people are
being told to wash their hands?
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA: Yes. It's very difficult.
We are just beginning to recover from our last public health crisis. And then this is
an added public health crisis that is straining very limited resources and exacerbating preexisting
chronic disparities.
We have, fortunately, over the last few years, in our recovery from the water crisis, have
been able to build some of the public health infrastructure to support families.
For example, the Flint Registry, supported by the CDC, funded by Congress, is exactly
what we need right now. And it helps families get connected to nutrition, education, water,
all these different -- all these important things that we need right now.
For example, just this week, the Flint Registry connected a family who did not have running
water to the services in the city that now can get them back connected.
So, in some respects, the hard work that we have been doing in our recovery the last few
years, the building of that disinvested public health infrastructure, has enabled us to more
quickly respond to this crisis and further support families.
However, that infrastructure, just like that public health infrastructure throughout our
nation, needs more support and needs more funding. And, for example, that Flint Registry,
the funding without congressional action, is set to expire in a year.
JOHN YANG: Are there other ways that the water crisis is sort of making the pandemic more
complicated in Flint?
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA: That's actually what keeps me up at night.
So, our previous public health crisis, the flood crisis, was an exposure of a neurotoxin
on top of a population that had a lot of risk factors for health and development.
So, we potentially have a population of children who will have long-term health and education
deficits. And now we have this pandemic, which creates significant gaps in education and
nutrition and health care.
Our kids can't go to high-quality child care anymore. They can't participate in literacy
services. The home visiting programs, all these things that we have put into place to
buffer, to mitigate the impact of the water crisis with the lead exposure are gone right
now.
Another thing that we have to recognize with this pandemic is the mental health issues
that are -- that are happening. People, especially in low-income areas, they're stressed, just
like we're all stressed. They're anxious. They don't have the luxury of, for example,
staying at home in big, spacious homes and doing remote work and getting paid.
They're on the front lines. They are delivering our mail. They are working in our grocery
stores. They are driving our buses. They are keeping America running.
JOHN YANG: When we were in Flint last year, we found a lot of people who continued distrust
of the government.
And now there's concerns about the way the leadership is handling the coronavirus pandemic.
How is that affecting people?
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA: There's been significant loss and trust of every level of government
because of the betrayal from this water crisis.
They were essentially, you know, lied to by people whose job was to keep them safe and
make sure that their water was safe to drink. That wasn't new lost trust. You know, it was
-- it had really been built on decades of lost trust, because Flint, as a city, just
like many of our urban centers, many of our post-manufacturing communities, had suffered
from disinvestment and neglect and racism for quite some time.
And then our water crisis happened, and now we are in the midst of this other pandemic
where our leaders also failed us.
JOHN YANG: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha from outside Flint, Michigan, thank you very much.