Now check out this. All this time they've been stonewalling but push comes to shove now. Even though at this point they're admitting there might be some issues they are in huge CYA mode.
Outside Researchers Asking to Analyze Flint’s Blood Lead Data Were Stonewalled: “Yikes!”
On September 2nd 2015, Professor Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech (primary author of this article and source of the Freedom of Information Act documents cited herein) made a simple data request to DHHS. Edwards had previously made an identical request in November 2006 for a blood lead study in Lansing, and that data was provided without any problems.
Grab this. Virginia Tech had to get an FOIA. Aye carumba.
Also “Not for the Public:” Data That Caused the State to Admit They Were Wrong.
By October 2nd, the DHHS finally acknowledged that there was a serious problem in Flint. It confirmed that children living in the two zip codes (48503 and 48504) identified by Virginia Tech has having highest lead in water risks , also
had increased incidence of childhood lead poisoning after the switch to Flint River. Just as Hurely’s Mona—Hanna Attisha had asserted.
But they have never, to date, publicly released their in-house data demonstrating the extent of the problem.
Our FOIA reveals a shocking DHHS graph created in October 2015. It shows the statistically significant spike in blood lead that occurred in summer 2014– the scientific result that DHHS has never publicly acknowledged.
Even more horrifying, it also shows blood lead skyrocketing in summer of 2015, to the point where 9.5-12.5 percent of children in Flint’s two high risk zip codes were lead poisoned.
This is in the range of Hurley’s more recent estimate that incidence of childhood lead poisoning in some neighborhoods was as high as 15%. It goes without saying, surely, that this data was also “not for the public.”
Michigan Health Department Hid Evidence of Health Harm Due to Lead Contaminated Water: Allowed False Public Assurances by MDEQ and Stonewalled Outside Researchers
They lied. They hid information. They fudged data. It's just unreal. So right across the board no one got the deal till Virginia Tech (bless their souls) went after DHHS and revealed the horrid truth.
