In 2014, state officials assured residents that their water was safe to drink. It was not. Now, with the coronavirus vaccine being launched across the country, some Flint residents are wondering whether or not it is safe to take it. Hesitation is particularly high in some black communities, which have a history of discrimination in the health care system in the United States (and beyond).
Omar Jimenez traveled to Flint to talk to residents about how the water crisis affected his views on the coronavirus vaccine.
The CNN Go There team asked readers to submit questions about what it was like to report on Flint: How are residents handling the situation and why do their skepticism persist? And what is in store as the vaccine distribution continues?
Can Flint residents now be able to drink from the tap safely? What is the residual impact on children and the younger generation?
In short, yes by federal standards. Does everyone do that? No. In 2018, then-Governor Rick Synder said there was no longer a need to limit bottled water after years of steady reductions in lead and copper levels of more than 15 parts per billion in 2016 (a federal limit that requires action) down 5 parts per billion in early 2018.
Although the water is safe by federal standards, the small amount of lead is still lead and is part of the reason why so many people still choose not to drink straight from the tap, including many children who have grown up since 2014 with this practice looking common. But more immediately, the American Journal of Public Health found that after the city made the decision to move its water source to the Flint River at the start of the crisis, “the percentage of children with high levels of lead in their blood increased after the changing the water source, particularly in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Water is a growing source of exposure to lead in childhood due to aging infrastructure. “
The city currently obtains its water from Lake Huron.
In short, if children are not feeling the physical repercussions of this, the mental ones still exist. I interviewed a man who told me that his son asked if it is safe to drink water from the source when he visits other states. This is purely an instinct that has been growing in Flint for the past 10 years.
This is a perfect scenario to raise awareness of why some communities are afraid of the information being distributed. What Flint endured and continues to suffer is devastating. In what ways can we help?
In all honesty, much of this comes from being able to detect incorrect information, but also from putting pressure on the community and pressing to independently verify the figures released by city and state officials. Part of Flint’s discovery of the scale of the problem came from community-based reports. That’s why groups like Flint River Watershed Coalition, Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center and the Flint Water Study exist. The latter existed as an independent Virginia Tech research team to help study drinking water issues in Flint.
I’m sure there are groups that you can donate to on the immediate side of things, but in general, helping is simply not letting what they experienced happen in vain. Flint cannot be a forgotten chapter in history, but a reminder of the real-life consequences of cost cutting at the expense of health and the pressure that is sometimes needed from a community to bring about real change.
Is there anything that surprised you while you were reporting this story and this community?
Yes, honestly, it was skepticism that still exists. It is easy to fall into the “Oh Flint HAPPENED, not yet happening” trap, which is true to some extent. The quality of the water can be much better now. However, hearing from people who still don’t trust water was the face-to-face reminder (mask) that I needed to fully realize the generational impact of just a few short years when this crisis peaked.
One of the people I talked to showed me the electric pan she still keeps in the bathroom as a reminder of when she boiled water just to wash her face. She no longer uses it, but it remains there as a kind of memorial, a tomb from more threatening times. And then, when you translate that mindset into the Covid-19 vaccine, you can imagine why there is hesitation. It has been declared safe by as many medical organizations as you can possibly have, but for these people, it was said that something was safe before, and it wasn’t. So it is not that many will never get the vaccine, but in a strategy similar to the peak of the crisis, they want to do their own research first.
Do the residents you spoke to feel safe when talking about health and safety issues with those tasked with helping them stay safe and healthy? Do you see any level of confidence?
This is a very good question and, in general, I would say the answer is yes. People see the water crisis in Flint much more closely, rather than afar, in the later view. I think the level of trust, in fact, comes less from blindly following what those in power say, but from combining that with your own intuition and community resources.
A woman I spoke to helps administer Healthy Flint Research Coordinating Center webinars and part of her mission is to allow thousands of people they have been able to connect with to hear directly from doctors and other trusted people in the community so they can balance what they can be informed of the state and / or city with what those with whom they relate best are saying. There is trust, but trust now seems to come consciously from a variety of sources, rather than just following one.
How is the standard of care in Flint now during the pandemic? How are residents being treated by the medical community?
The standard of general care is very similar to what you would see in most other jurisdictions. It’s not perfect, but it works. When it comes to Covid, as well as many other places, the county that houses Flint saw an increase in November and December, but managed to control its numbers and even now sees less than 100 confirmed cases a day.
As for the way residents are being treated, I think engagement takes on a whole new meaning. Citizens are actively seeking more information, as members of the medical community increasingly realize the weight and importance of its manifestation. Even a high school student I spoke to in Flint is involved in more health-related clubs than I knew existed during my high school days.
People, both the community and the health sector, seem to realize that they share a collective goal of not wanting to go back to where things were just a few years ago. Again, while it’s not perfect (and I’m sure I’m missing individual complaints), those in the medical community are participating in webinars, they’re participating in community events, partly because facing the current challenge requires everyone and transparency seems to be the guiding principle.
I would like to know about the diversity within these groups that hesitate in relation to the vaccine; There are subgroups differentiated by education, economics, etc. that can be different?
Also remember that “drinking water taps manufactured before 2014 contained up to 8 percent lead”, according to the state of Michigan, so those in poorer communities who are more likely to have taps in this category as well they are less likely to be first in line to know what the state may be telling them to do.
For registration, all vaccines that are on the market in accordance with the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization have been proven through several rigorous studies as safe to use.