On March 26th, 2019, I went to the CDC Museum in Atlanta, GA. I chose this site because I don’t have a car and was able to take the train and a bus to get there. Also, I had never been to the CDC before and was excited to see it. Upon entering the museum I saw this beautiful wall (which is my header) and decided to take a picture with it.
While I did not get to do an official tour, I did manage to find my way around and even ran into a student from our class.
At first, I was confused about the By the People: Designing a Better America exhibit because I didn’t immediately associate infrastructure with disease. Not only did this exhibit change my mind but learning about sick building syndrome in class last week also highlighted the detrimental effect these facilities can have on our health.
Part of the exhibit was this poster on the Cleveland Model that explained how advocating for and transforming lower class neighborhoods can help create jobs, engage youth, and provide a foundation for a greener world. This plan echoes a similar sentiment I’ve seen on the train where they have young people involved in growing produce and holding small stands at different Marta Stations to sell fresh produce to their community. I hope we can implement a plan like the Cleveland Model in Atlanta because I think the city has great potential; the people in charge are just too busy allocating money for building stadiums instead of reducing homelessness.
On another note, the exhibit that really fascinated me was The Story of the CDC because it was here that I found my microbe: Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
I chose Mycobacterium tuberculosis because it was familiar to me. I remember being tested for it last year before I started volunteering at a hospital and many times as a child after visiting family in Pakistan. The exciting part of this bacteria is the fact that not only was it integral to the CDC’s origin in the late 1960’s, but it is still as popular and deadly today.
This is what it looks like using fluorescence microscopy:
There was also the cover of a Spanish comic book illustrating a real-life baseball player with TB:
And finally, unrelated to my microbe, there was a poster promoting the cleaning of toilets because it is cheaper to clean your toilet than buy a coffin after you die of dysentery.
Overall, I had a great experience at the museum. I expected it to be more X-files and less museum-like, so I was vaguely disappointed in the beginning, but after going through the exhibits and seeing the impact the CDC has had on treating outbreaks, I definitely don’t regret choosing this site.
