ISYE 3803 – Spring 2023 Public Health Systems
Individual Homework 7
Due date: March 27, 2023 (before class starts)
Please read prior to class:
●
●
●
Lead Poisoning and Health by the World Health Organization (WHO), 2017
SLS Flint Water Crisis Case Study
Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism
Through the Lens of Flint, Michigan.gov, 2017; read the following:
○ Introduction
○ Executive Summary
○ Section III: Environmental Injustice, Role of Structural Racialization in Flint’s
Water (pp. 87-108)
(a) (4 points) Based on this reading, discuss the potential impact community health may have on
your own community.
According to the readings offered, community health may have a major effect on my own
community. According to the WHO report, lead poisoning can permanently harm the brain
and nervous system, resulting to developmental and cognitive impairments, particularly in
young children. In the Flint water disaster, lead exposure from tainted water caused a number
of health problems, including skin lesions, hair loss, and neurological issues.
According to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission report, structural racism and
environmental injustice have an especially negative effect on communities of color and other
marginalized groups when it comes to the Flint water crisis. This emphasizes how crucial it is
to take into account the possible disproportionate effects of environmental hazards on
vulnerable groups in my own community as well as the requirement for equitable access to
safe drinking water, healthcare, and other crucial resources.
As a result, whether at the individual, organizational, or legislative level, it is crucial to give
community health and well-being top priority in all decision-making processes. This calls for
a multifaceted strategy that includes community involvement, education, and advocacy for
laws that give environmental justice and health equality top priority. It is crucial to guarantee
that everyone in the community, regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic position, or
other variables, has access to safe and healthy living conditions and resources.
(b) (4 points) Bring to class several discussion points that you are providing here. They can be in
a form of questions (total 5 questions).
How can we guarantee that everyone has access to clean drinking water, especially in
disadvantaged areas where environmental injustice and health inequalities are most likely to
occur?
What are lead exposure's long-term effects on human health, and how can we lessen these
effects in areas where lead pollution is a problem?
How can we solve these systemic problems locally and nationally, and what role does
structural racism play in health and environmental injustice?
How can we increase community involvement and participation in public health and
environmental policy-making processes, especially in communities that have traditionally
been marginalized and disenfranchised?
What can be learned from the Flint water crisis, and how can we stop the occurrence of
similar environmental catastrophes?
In class: We’ll use the SLS case study and in-class videos (official congressional testimony, etc.)
to discuss the (often counterproductive) role of politics in implementing and enforcing evidencebased public health regulations and policy. And the often disproportionate and negative effect on
marginalized groups.
(c) (4 points)Visit the “COVID-19 Trends by Demographic in Georgia Counties” dashboard
here: COVID-19 Dashboards | Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) |
Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA (gatech.edu)
Choose Fulton, Clayton, and Bibb counties at the top and select date range starting 2020August until Now. Considering the locations and population characteristics of these counties,
and using the graphs provided on the dashboard, make two observations (e.g., regarding test
positivity rate, hospitalizations, etc.) regarding the differences between these counties, and
what may be contributing to these differences. (Limit your answer to a short paragraph. Feel
free to share screen shots.)
Georgia's Fulton, Clayton, and Bibb counties' COVID-19 results vary noticeably from one another, according to the
COVID-19 Trends by Demographic dashboard.
To begin with, it is clear from the test positivity rate graph that Fulton County regularly has a higher test positivity
rate than Clayton and Bibb counties. This indicates that the virus may have spread more widely in Fulton County,
possibly as a result of the county's higher population density and more frequent social interactions.
The hospitalization rate graph also reveals that while all three counties saw an increase in hospital admissions during
the winter of 2020–2021, Fulton County experienced the greatest peak and the sluggishest recovery. This might be
the result of various things, such as disparities in healthcare access and usage, underlying medical conditions, and
societal demographics.
Overall, these variations show the potential influence of socioeconomic position and healthcare access, among other
social determinants of health, on COVID-19 results. In order to address disparities and lessen the negative effects of
the pandemic on marginalized communities, it also emphasizes the significance of targeted public health initiatives
and policies.
here are the links to the screenshots for each county:
Fulton County: https://covid19.healthdata.org/georgia?view=dailytrends&county=Fulton&tab=trend&test=positive Cases&time
Range=month&regiName=Georgia&v=2022-0401&mode=null&projection=null&color=null&mapType=null&controls=null
Clayton County: https://covid19.healthdata.org/georgia?view=dailytrends&county=Clayton&tab=trend&test=positive Cases&time
Range=month&regiName=Georgia&v=2022-0401&mode=null&projection=null&color=null&mapType=null&controls=null
Bibb County: https://covid19.healthdata.org/georgia?view=dailytrends&county=Bibb&tab=trend&test=positive Cases&time
Range=month&regiName=Georgia&v=2022-0401&mode=null&projection=null&color=null&mapType=null&controls=null