LA County Public Health Director on Regional Population in COVID-19 CasesExBulletin

Michelle Martin, Host:

Today, let’s take a look at the shocking statistics that led the news earlier this week. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy in the United States was reduced by half a year in 2020. The decline from 78.8 in 2019 to 77.3 in 2020 was the largest decrease in life expectancy in the United States since World War II. And the decline was even steeper for blacks and Latin Americans-about three years.

The main culprit here was COVID. The CDC said COVID is responsible for 74% of this decline in life expectancy. But that’s not all, as you can see in your city or town, as evidenced by drug overdose and murder spikes, especially with guns. So today I decided to take a closer look at all three public health crises. And I’m going to ask some questions you might have, such as whether these are somehow related.

Let’s start with a pandemic and Los Angeles County, one of the places in the country where COVID cases have been increasing recently. The average daily number of cases in the county is nine times higher than it was just four weeks ago. And that is despite the fact that 62% of residents over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated. I called Dr. Barbara Ferrer to find out more about the county’s response. She is the Director of Public Health in LA County and is currently with us. Dr. Feller, thank you for being with us again.

BARBARA FERRER: Thank you Michelle.

Martin: So, first of all, what do you think about why this is happening? Is this a new variant?

FERRER: Indeed, in LA County, in fact, most of our growth is due to the highly infectious delta variant. There are many opportunities to infect unvaccinated people. As you know, many of us are fully vaccinated. I am very grateful to everyone who came to get the vaccination, but here in LA County there are about 4 million people who have not yet been vaccinated. , Including 1.3 million children under the age of 12. Combined with the fact that this has been completely restarted, there is even more mixing. You can see how easy it is to have a lot of spread.

Martin: That’s one of the reasons why everyone is required to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status. I think the mandate came into effect just a week ago. What is your feeling about whether it helped?

Feller: There’s a 14-day incubation period here, so I’m not sure if that helped for a few weeks. Therefore, you need to wait for a while to see how effective it is in actually returning to the slowdown. Even a fully vaccinated person can become infected or pass on the infection to others. And it’s very small, but when you have many community infections, we all have to do everything we can to reduce those risks. And that means wearing a mask when you are indoors.

Martin: I would like to focus on two other public health issues before letting go of you. And the first is gun violence. I was just checking the numbers from June in the City of Los Angeles-the latest I have is the City of Los Angeles-. By mid-June, a total of 651 people were shot dead in Los Angeles, compared to 434 last year. The city averages about 27 shooting victims a week. And there were already about 162 murders, compared to 129 in the same period in 2020. So it’s just until mid-June. What do you think is happening here? And as a public health authority, how do you deal with this?

Feller: We agree that it is noticeable and alarming and, in fact, requires immediate action in many different areas, including the work we have done over the past few years. .. We invite violent interveners in and out of the community to build peace between conflicting factions and create opportunities for people to gather safely. In fact, I suspect that the surprising increase in gun violence is associated with many stressors exacerbated by COVID.

However, while there are many stressors associated with pandemics, it should also be noted that gun violence also depends on the type of easy access to the gun. And that is an issue that we must address through policy measures, and we must work with law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system.

Martin: Seems like this kind of wave on the wave of the public health crisis. So for the last 18 months, your office and many other offices have, of course, had to worry. Mainly worried and prioritize the COVID crisis. But then, like the opioid epidemic, these other indelible problems arise. And you have gun violence on it. Are you overwhelmed? As a public health expert, what did this look like to you?

Feller: As you know, public health wasn’t really possible. Even during COVID, we cannot handle it ourselves. We have relied heavily on our partners. And the same is true when we think about how we deal with violence, how we deal with substance use disorders, and how we can get the right support to connect and recover. I think it applies. As you know, this requires a huge amount of support and resources from many other people.

Again, when you look at what happened during COVID, you can’t miss the fact that years of inequality are in fact the cause of many of the problems you’re raising. can not. , Preceded the pandemic. And in fact, the unfair distribution of certain resources and opportunities for health has actually contributed to some of the overwhelming imbalances seen in COVID. The imbalance reappears when we look at who is most affected by gun violence. And that happens again when we think of the imbalances around the destruction we are seeing because of the drug epidemic.

Martin: That’s Dr. Barbara Ferrer. She is the Director of Public Health in Los Angeles County. Dr. Feller, thank you again for your talk.

Feller: Michelle, thank you for inviting me.

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