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| How L.A. County became coronavirus epicenter: Slower shutdown, density, poverty among theories |
| 2020-05-24 |
| h/t Instapundit [LAT] - In mid-March, as the specter of a society-upending pandemic grew, Los Angeles County emerged as something of a bright spot. When Bay Area counties mandated on March 16 that all residents stay at home, officials said it didn’t make sense in L.A. County because far fewer cases of the coronavirus had been detected. Bureaucrats were naturally anti-locker because they don't like interruptions in their routines. Now, of course, lockup became routine "We don’t have the same trajectory that they have up north," L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that day when asked about a stay-at-home order. Wonder if she consulted with the eminent and estimable Dr Ioannides? Two months later, the situation has shifted dramatically. L.A. County now has the highest rate of deaths from COVID-19 in the state, and the second highest infection rate. On Friday, federal officials singled out Los Angeles because of its stubbornly high case counts of the coronavirus, despite precautions to slow the spread. ...Compared with cities nationwide, Los Angeles’ rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths has been relatively low. ...But the region has emerged as an outlier within California. In L.A. County, 426 out of every 100,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19, compared with 270 in San Francisco. In L.A., 20 out of every 100,000 residents have died of COVID-19, compared with 4 in San Francisco. ...To try to make sense of these trends, data crunchers at the L.A. County Public Health Department recently ran some numbers, said chief science officer Dr. Paul Simon. They looked into whether L.A. County’s population was older than the rest of the state’s. In Italy, an older-than-average population was believed to have contributed to that country’s alarmingly high death rate. But the L.A. County analysis found that its population was not older than the rest of the state, and perhaps even skewed a little younger, Simon said. Analysts also looked into whether the county’s residents were more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity compared with the rest of the state, factors that could make them more likely to die from COVID-19. Again, they found no difference, he said. So, what's the answer? Can you guess without peeking? |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |