Wealthier LA areas have high coronavirus infection rates. Why Are Their Numbers Fooled | Nationwide

But these disparities do not mean that the virus that causes COVID-19 is more widespread through rich areas than poor areas, say public health officials and experts. Rather, they are probably distorted by uneven access to the test, and in some cases, distorted by wealthy residents who traveled abroad and had some of the earliest confirmed infections Has been done.

According to some experts, this trend is not a precursor to regional efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, as it suggests awkward disparities in testing along with race, income, and immigration status . They argue that the lack of proper testing in low-income areas means that there is less fear of pathogens, and therefore, there is little reason to be wary of ordering at physical distances. Say that there is a risk of giving a false impression.

“There is a lot of misinformation and indifference in the black community,” said Sadio Woods of Inglewood, who failed the COVID-19 test. “This story is a disease of a rich white man. They travel. They are spreading this disease to each other.”

Nationwide, cities with high black and Latino populations, such as Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, are hot spots for the spread of coronavirus. California Senator Kamala Harris and a group of Democrats are concerned that race and income are affecting these outbreaks, and a comprehensive population of people who have been tested and treated for the disease has been identified. Requested health authorities to record statistical data. This information is currently scarce.

“Lack of this information will exacerbate existing health inequalities and result in the loss of life in vulnerable communities,” a member of Parliament wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Hazard.

More than 21,000 people in Los Angeles County have been tested for coronavirus, with approximately 12% positive. However, because counties do not track the location of all negative tests, it is not possible to determine whether tests are being performed evenly throughout the county.

On Wednesday, county health officials said they were “aware of the geographic differences” in the test and are now asking the lab to report negative as well as positive results.

“Our hope is to focus on some areas where we know that testing is actually low,” said Barbara Feller of the LA County Health Service.

The lack of accurate and readily available test kits has hindered COVID-19 compliance. Since the first case occurred in the United States, it has been almost impossible for local authorities to track and delay the outbreak. Ferrer said that testing for COVID-19 remains difficult for most symptomatic residents.

“In most cases, we still need a provider to create orders. I think some communities have easier access to providers who just write lab orders than others,” Ferrer says. Told. “So I think there is still a question about who is being tested and who is not.”

She said that wealth could play a role in both the spread and discovery of the disease, but it was not clear to what extent.

A few weeks before the new coronavirus hit the county, some residents of Brentwood and West Hollywood became infected while traveling in Europe, bringing the virus home and causing a “cluster effect,” she said. Said. “It’s true that at first there were a lot of positive travel-related elements and there were more people traveling on vacation, but that means they are richer.”

The Times also reported last month that “concierge” physicians, who cater to wealthy people and celebrities, are selling test kits to patients and their families. Doctors are based in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills and are ranked by county with the highest infection rates.

Ferrer emphasized that it was too early to know if these types of proprietary health care had affected the total number of confirmed cases, and that people were transmitting the virus in all communities.

When comparing communities, county health officials emphasized the importance of examining the percentage of cases per person, not the total number of cases. They started reporting these rates publicly this week.

“In places where the number of cases is small, the disease burden may actually be higher than the number of people in that area,” Feller said.

For example, the county health department reported that wealthy enclaves in Beverly Crest recorded 22 total infections at a rate of 177 per 100,000 people. .

Nicky Miner, a long-time resident of Beverly Crest, said that residents of wealthy areas have easy access to testing, and hillside communities may be actually safe due to hidden locations. Angry thinking Her neighbors she said, she is following city guidelines that encourage residents to stay home and avoid non-essential travel.

“We are pleased to announce that the Belair / Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council vice president, Miner, said: “I think the whole situation is universal and we are all together. It doesn’t really matter whether we separate the rich segment or the working class segment.”

Alexandra Cortes, Mayor, is about 17 miles southeast of Bell Gardens, a 95% Latino city with the lowest reported cases of coronavirus in the county. “In fact many people have not been tested.”

“People were refused testing until further symptoms appeared,” Cortez said. “I think it contributes to a small number of cases.”

In a letter last week, leaders from Cortes and 15 neighboring communities in southeast LA urged the county to set up a drive-through test site in the area, citing low-income Latino families and high population density. In addition, the city exceeds the city of New York City. “

Cortez said that reducing testing barriers is particularly important in communities like her, where there are large numbers of people whose legal immigration status and lack of health insurance can be a deterrent to seeking care. .

“I think making tests more accessible and less intimidating for our community is one way to get people out,” she said. Regional hospitals have already reported many cases, she added, “they go to these hospitals for testing because people think they will get it just by entering the facility I know it’s scary. “

A woman answered at a local clinic, Bell Gardens Family Medical Center, stated that the facility did not provide a COVID-19 test, but people have requested that it be requested. She said workers were told to send those people to a county hospital, and they were trying to get a test kit, but did not know when or how it would happen .

Data is also variable in some middle-class communities due to high infection rates. West Hollywood is currently the second highest rate in the county, at 179 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with an average income of the county average.

City spokeswoman Lisa Bersanti said that West Hollywood residents are seeking COVID-19 testing more quickly, given the city’s long-term commitment to testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

“We have a population that has been heavily affected by HIV in the early days, but HIV is still not eradicated,” she said. “You can make a correlation that people with pre-existing conditions, people who are HIV-positive, may seek early testing if they have symptoms.”

The testing capacity has improved since the outbreak of the coronavirus, but the population is about twice as large, but California is far behind New York in the number tested, making it uneven and incomplete.

In some of the cases identified, some point to geographic disparities as evidence that our understanding of the spread of the virus has been distorted by social inequality. Victor Cuevas, a city planner on Mount Washington who created his own county coronavirus map, is concerned that inadequate testing in low-income Latino communities is already having dangerous consequences.

“I’m telling my parents living in the northeastern valley to stay home, but they have neighbors who don’t take it seriously,” We’re fine, there’s no incident here in Pacoima ” Said Cuevas.

Ferrer stated that because of the lack of testing, it was a “really false assumption” to believe that the number of cases reported in a particular community reflected the actual number.

“There are thousands of people who are positive for COVID-19 that have not been tested, but we do not necessarily know that they are positive. They may have a mild illness, May be quite asymptomatic, “Feller said. “Every community has people who can infect other people, and you can be one of them that has infected other people, or There is a possibility.”

One of the lowest confirmed rates is Pomona, at the eastern end of LA County. Resident Dwight Pennington said it could be due to the first COVID-19 deaths in the county-Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center announced on March 9.

“I think people received the message because we were in our own backyard,” said 27-year-old Pennington. However, based on his personal experience, we attribute the low number of Pomona to lack of testing.

Pennington, who works as a wellness advocate at the Tri-City Mental Health Center, recently tried to be tested for COVID-19 after developing a cough, but from the attending physician and three emergency treatment facilities, they were not. There is a test kit that is said. He said he would continue to call more hospitals if there was assurance that they had the kit.

Pennington said he was convinced he wasn’t infected with the virus, but he remembers that his experience was “really nervous.”

Chandraford, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, states that data is likely to have a “test bias” because tests are not available across the county.

She said that infection rates would rise disproportionately in areas with higher shares of homeless and uninsured workers as more people are screened in the coming months.

“In the long run, the population of missed people is likely to be the most vulnerable members of our society,” said UCLA, founding director of the Center for Research on Racism, Social Justice and Health. , Ford said. “I think we see that the nature of the epidemic in Southern California has actually changed, and that these vulnerable populations have a larger share of the new case.”

Ryan Demmer, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said that the available data on current infections at the neighborhood level reflects broader national trends in healthcare access.

“If the disease does exist, getting richer usually means being more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease,” Demar said.

Nevertheless, focusing on confirmed cases can be misleading in the first place. This is because many people were unable to get tested. They say that better indicators of the spread of outbreaks are the number of deaths and hospitalizations, including how many people end up in intensive care units.

According to L.A. County Public Health Service data, the number of people recently killed or hospitalized for the virus has increased, but these figures have not been categorized beyond the county level.

Returning to Inglewood, where the infection rate is reported to be 32 cases per 100,000, Woods “ knows that people have not been extensively tested ”, so little confidence in the accuracy of recent statistics He said there was no.

She is worried that long-standing distrust of the healthcare system and other barriers is responsible for the madness seen in the black community. The men in her neighborhood are still gathered at the corner. Teenagers bike in groups. Her neighbors are still gathering and having a party. Few people wear gloves or masks. There is little social distance.

“I know what happens in low-income, underserved and color communities,” she said. “It may be like New Orleans. I’m scared of South LA.”

She is worried that people’s behavior will not change until she knows someone who has tested positive. By then, it may be too late and the disease may be prevalent in the community.

The coronavirus has already contacted Woods in one or more ways. On Tuesday, she went on a ski trip to Idaho, and after dozens of other blacks and a virus infection, about a family friend-a black from South Los Angeles-fighting for his life talked.

Later that day, Woods learned that the coronavirus had killed his life.

(Times staff writers Soumya Karlamangla, Ryan Menezes, Ben Welsh, and Priscella Vega contributed to this report.)

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