Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha Says Lessons Learned in Flint Can Help In Fight Against COVID-19
Good governance, faith in science, prevention, and understanding disparities are all important lessons learned from the Flint water crisis and are applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic, says Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
Governor Whitmer and the MDHHS announced new restrictions in response to a surge in the state’s COVID-19 cases. Michigan was hard hit at the start of the pandemic and is seeing another wave of cases and hospitalizations.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who has firsthand experience with public health emergencies, joined Detroit Today to share her thoughts on the current state of the pandemic.
Listen: How lessons learned in Flint can help in the fight against COVID-19.
Guest:
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a C.S. Mott Endowed Professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and author of “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City,” a powerful account of the Flint water crisis from her perspective as a physician on the ground. Dr. Mona, who herself contracted and recovered from COVID-19, says that the lessons learned in Flint are applicable to where we are today in the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, good governance, faith in science, prevention, and understanding disparities are all important lessons learned from the Flint water crisis and are applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have to proactively invest in public health infrastructure,” says Dr. Mona. She adds that while the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated economic and racial inequalities, the medical community is finally taking these disparities seriously. “I’m so glad that the medical community is finally at a place of recognizing their role in perpetuating racism… this national reckoning where we are at right now is fantastic and we have a long way to go,” says Dr. Mona.
This post was written by Clare Brennan
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