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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmid Water Crisis, Michigan's Top Health Official Said Flint Residents "Have to Die of Something,"
Amid Water Crisis, Michigans Top Health Official Said Flint Residents Have to Die of Something, Scientists Say
September 9, 2019 /
by Patrice Taddonio Digital Writer & Audience Development Strategist
As summer approached, Shawn McElmurry, Dr. Paul Kilgore and Dr. Marcus Zervos were growing increasingly concerned.
The three men sat on a scientific panel that was formed to look into the source of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Flint, Michigan. The spread of the disease coincided with the state switching the citys drinking water supply to the Flint River and it had gone on for more than a year before the public was notified.
Now, it was May 2016, four months since Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced both the existence of the outbreak and the creation of the panel, and the state health department still hadnt officially authorized the panel to begin working, its members say.
The group knew how Legionnaires disease, a severe form of pneumonia caused by the waterborne legionella bacteria, operates: once the weather heated up, more people could die. So in May, they met with state health director Nick Lyon to warn him that it was urgent to step up monitoring for Legionnaires cases.
I remember, at one point, my colleague telling him that if he didnt do that, people could die, McElmurry, an engineering professor and the chair of the panel, told FRONTLINE.
Thats just one of the troubling alleged incidents reported in new detail or for the first time in Flints Deadly Water. Based on two years of reporting, the FRONTLINE documentary premiering Sept. 10 reveals how a public health disaster thats become known for the lead poisoning of thousands of children also spawned one of the largest outbreaks of Legionnaires disease in U.S. history.
more...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/amid-water-crisis-michigans-top-health-official-said-flint-residents-have-to-die-of-something-scientists-say/?fbclid=IwAR1euFkzS1N_yWo51J8S-4z3XAKS_STz-UMBRvh7GmpXdG5ouiayukkn2UI
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)vlyons
(10,252 posts)Sure the lies by the GOP government and the depraved indifference to the plight of Flint's citizens deserve criminal prosecutions?
gibraltar72
(7,498 posts)knew and did nothing until cornered. This piece of crap is guilty of many murders.
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)Last edited Tue Sep 10, 2019, 09:55 AM - Edit history (6)
link from the Detroit News:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2019/06/13/involuntary-manslaughter-charges-dropped-flint-water-scandal/1445870001/
Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud on Thursday dropped all pending criminal cases over the Flint water contamination crisis, a stunning move as she reboots a probe that began more than three years ago under a previous regime.
While they could be charged again in the future, former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells are no longer set to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Charges also were dropped against six other state and Flint officials.
The decision, announced by Attorney General Dana Nessels office, will give the department time to conduct a full and complete investigation. The dismissals were greeted with disappointment and dismay by many Flint lawmakers and residents as the state has spent more than $30.6 million and growing on a nearly three-and-a-half-year-old investigation.
The moves are a rebuke of the probe and 15 prosecutions started by Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette's office under Special Prosecutor Todd Flood and former FBI agent Andy Arena. Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud on Thursday dropped all pending criminal cases over the Flint water contamination crisis, a stunning move as she reboots a probe that began more than three years ago under a previous regime.
While they could be charged again in the future, former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells are no longer set to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Charges also were dropped against six other state and Flint officials.
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Here is another article about a meeting that was held with people from Flint Michigan, a couple of weeks after this decision was made, 2nd article: June 29, 2019, at 9:05 a.m. Prosecutors who dropped charges met with people from Flint.(my comment:.Unbelievable everything was dropped, and a new investigation was started.. .............another thought...Crooks who covered this one up, are totally free. Prosecutors are starting all over again.......????
From USNEWS:
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-06-28/flint-will-hear-from-prosecutors-who-dropped-water-charges
TheBlackAdder
(28,163 posts).
.
Boomerproud
(7,938 posts)this Friday.
dlk
(11,509 posts)It only seems fair...
James48
(4,426 posts)One of my high school girlfriends from 40 years ago worked in the local (Flint McLearen) hospital there as a security guard.
She got sick, and in a few days later , she died.
I didnt know about it until a year later, but all the symptoms were consistent with legionairs, and it was right around the same time as the official first cases were diagnosed. Im thinking that there are other deaths, not just the ones already identified, that are connected to the water there.
She was an employee, not a patient in the hospital, so they didnt connect that case at the time, but I am pretty sure thats what it was. I just wonder how many other deaths were caused, but not officially attributed to , that outbreak.
CDerekGo
(507 posts)Who make excuses for this sort of thing, from tainted water, to not providing drinking water, shower, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc.
Why can't we as the General Public, MAKE THEM GO EXPERIENCE THIS? Let's have the Judges give them say, what two weeks in those 'cages' with nothing but toilet water to drink, no showers, not soap, no toothpaste, no toothbrushes. Of course, they'll all KNOW that in two weeks, they'll ultimately be released and get to go home to hot showers, clean towels, and a nice bed to sleep in. But, for two solid weeks, these privileged azzhats will experience what they truly believe is 'ok'.