The blueprint of disaster: COVID-19, the Flint water crisis, and unequal ecological impacts

Abstract

COVID-19 is unique in the scope of its effects on morbidity and mortality. However, the factors contributing to its disparate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic effects are part of an expansive and continuous history of oppressive social policy and marginalising geopolitics. This history is characterised by institutionally generated spatial inequalities forged through processes of residential segregation and neglectful urban planning. In the USA, aspects of COVID-19's manifestation closely mirror elements of the build-up and response to the Flint crisis, Michigan's racially and class-contoured water crisis that began in 2014, and to other prominent environmental injustice cases, such as the 1995 Chicago (IL, USA) heatwave that severely affected the city's south and west sides, predominantly inhabited by Black people. Each case shares common macrosocial and spatial characteristics and is instructive in showing how civic trust suffers in the aftermath of public health disasters, becoming especially degenerative among historically and spatially marginalised populations. Offering a commentary on the sociogeographical dynamics that gave rise to these crises and this institutional distrust, we discuss how COVID-19 has both inherited and augmented patterns of spatial inequality. We conclude by outlining particular steps that can be taken to prevent and reduce spatial inequalities generated by COVID-19, and by discussing the preliminary steps to restore trust between historically disenfranchised communities and the public officials and institutions tasked with responding to COVID-19.

COVID-19, the environment and animal life in Malawi compared to other countries: A brief scooping review for a research agenda in the developing countries

“…Several studies ( Ezell et al, 2021 ; Campos et al, 2021 ; Pant et al, 2021 ; Dobson et al, 2021 ; Abu-Bakar et al, 2021 ; Menneer et al, 2021 ; Cherif et al, 2020 ) have made an assessment on how access to and availability of quality water has been affected by the pandemic. As the demand for stay-at-home orders increased, demand for water access also increased ( Campos et al, 2021 ) due to the COVID-19 protocols such as frequent hand-washing with soap, disinfecting surfaces, and cleaning of food containers.…”

Vicarious structural racism and infant health disparities in Michigan: The Flint Water Crisis

“…A February 2017 report from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission substantiated this claim, concluding that racist policies and practices in employment, housing, and education, as well as racially disparate effects of the state's emergency manager law, contributed to the FWC ( 79 ). Additionally, local members of the Flint community have attributed the FWC to structural racism ( 94 , 106 , 116 , 117 ). Thus, we hypothesized that Black people in Michigan communities outside of Flint also may have attributed the water crisis to racism and that witnessing the effects of structural racism on members of their own racial/ethnic group in Flint, a majority-Black community, negatively affected their well-being and the health of their offspring via stress-related mechanisms ( 20 , 105 ).…”

Addressing Trauma-Informed Principles in Public Health through Training and Practice

“…As students develop competencies to perform public health work, it is critically important that they also recognize potentially harmful and unintended consequences of their decisions and actions on vulnerable and traumatized communities. Trauma has been addressed across core knowledge areas of public health, including biostatistics [ 28 , 29 ], epidemiology [ 30 ], social [ 31 ] and behavioral [ 32 , 33 ] sciences, health services administration [ 34 , 35 ], and environmental health sciences [ 36 ]. The discussion of trauma-related health outcomes can vary across disciplines.…”