It’s August in New York, sweltering. You’re walking down the street in a spaghetti strap dress when a droplet from an air conditioner splashes your shoulder. Nothing to worry about right?

Maybe yes, maybe no…

Air conditioners, boilers, fountains, sinks, and even toilets are home to Legionella pneumophila, an infectious bacterium that attacks through your respiratory system. Once inhaled, it enters the body through the alveoli—the deepest sites of gas exchange in the lungs—where it invades your macrophages and multiplies, causing shortness of breath, dizziness, and if left untreated, even death.

The Legionella pneumophila infection is called Legionnaires’ disease, so named for the members of the American Legion who were diagnosed in the 1970s after a convention in Philedalphia resulted in more than 200 infections and 30 deaths. They blamed the plumbing systems then as they blame the man-made water systems in old buildings in Harlem today.

Symptoms take weeks to surface, and by then the damage is underway, making it highly dangerous. Just ask the hundred or so people in Central Harlem who have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, or the families of victims killed by it—six so far—following an outbreak caused by Legionella pneumophila this summer (AP News Staff, 2025).

So who is most at risk? To answer that, let’s take a quick snapshot of how healthcare works in this country.

The YouTube video Population Health & COVID 19 supports my personal theory that if it’s happening in America, it’s because someone’s getting paid. Rising homelessness, someone gets paid (real estate developers). Guns in every crack and crevice of the country, someone gets paid (gun manufacturers, the NRA). Covid vaccines pushed onto the public a tad bit too early, well … someone got paid for that, too (pharmaceutical companies and their shareholders).

In the video, Fred Goldstein explains that “how [healthcare] works” in this country is basically, doctors use codes to bill insurance companies for things like special procedures, hospital admissions, and prescription drugs (Patient Orator, 2020). Doctors use these codes as claims against insurance companies to get paid, literally. More codes more money. Simple as. For those who haven’t connected the dots yet, this means that the healthcare system prioritizes profit margins instead of patient care.

The Harlem outbreak is too recent to provide a full demographic breakdown of the victims. However, based on what is known about Legionnaires’ disease, those most at risk are people aged 50 or older, individuals with preexisting conditions such as chronic lung disease, those with a history of smoking, and non-Latino Black New Yorkers (New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2023).

Sources:

AP News Staff. (2025, September 4). 6th death reported in Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in New York City. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/legionnaires-disease-new-york-harlem-9155fc9fd84d2c5f531c7b463fe6044a

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (2023). Legionnaires’ disease in New York City: 2019–2022 surveillance report. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/cd/legionnaires-surveillance-report.pdf

Patient Orator. (2020, May 29). Population Health & COVID 19 | Fred Goldstein. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtsfN1oEGCk