ANOTHER Flint Water Coverup? CDC Ignored Potential Outbreak of Deadly Waterborne Legionnaires Disease in 2021
Our Jordan Chariton uncovered what seems like the CDC sweeping another outbreak of the deadly Legionnaires outbreak—in Flint—under the rug. "They didn't want to talk to me no more."
Jordan Chariton recently made his 19th reporting trip to Flint Michigan since 2016. As usual, Status Coup was and is the ONLY national media outlet continuing to report on and investigate the ONGOING Flint water crisis.
While there, he caught wind of the likelihood that there has been a recent outbreak of the deadly waterborne Legionnaires Disease in Flint—with the city’s water being the source. If you recall, after the city switched to the Flint River in 2014, the toxic water caused the largest outbreak of Legionnaires in American history killing an untold number of residents (experts have suggested it may have killed hundreds with many residents not being officially diagnosed as having Legionnaires because they were misdiagnosed with pneumonia).
While on his most recent reporting trip, Jordan met with Chris and Ronda Thornton, a married Flint couple who are are both disabled (Jordan’s interview at the top of this story).
In 2021, Chris contracted Legionnaires in July (the bacteria thrives in hot summer months). Typical sources for Legionnaires or cooling units like air conditioner or water from your shower head. As Chris told Jordan, due to their limited funds, his wife and him were not using the AC. So he showered three to four times a day to “cool off” in the hot summer months.
"Well you got an air conditioner?" an official with the Center for Disease Control [CDC] asked Chris when they contacted him while he was hospitalized with Legionnaires Disease at Flint’s McLaren Hospital. "I told them I think I got it from the shower because that's the only time I come into contact with the water is the shower.” But, shockingly, when he told them that his exposure to the deadly waterborne bacteria had to have came from Flint’s water…"they didn't want to talk to me no more."
Fortunately, Chris survived his bout with Legionnaires. Unfortunately, three months after his hospitalization with Legionnaires likely due to showering in Flint water—which the CDC seemed to sweep under the rug—he contracted COVID in October 2021.
"My lungs weren't even healed yet...that almost killed me. I was coughing up blood like you wouldn't believe."
Chris’ wife, Ronda Thornton, told Jordan she does not trust Flint’s water and won’t ever drink it again.
“I don't trust it, I'm not gonna drink it, even with a filter I won't drink it,” she said. Overall, Ronda and Chris would like to move but can’t afford it. “It's just a nightmare living here, I never thought in a million years, this is America, I didn't think we'd ever live through something like this.”
Jordan is currently digging and investigating to obtain more information on what he believes was a larger outbreak of Legionnaires—from the same Flint water the government and media declared “safe” years ago—as recently as last year.
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