'Cause for alarm': COVID-19 hospitalizations worsen for Black L.A. County residents
Nurse LeShay Brown administers a Johnson & Johnson vaccination to A’ja Thrasher of View Park, in March.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
By RONG-GONG LIN II,
LUKE MONEY
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2021 UPDATED JULY 6, 2021 7:40 PM PT
Coronavirus case and hospitalization rates are worsening for Los Angeles County’s Black residents, a troubling sign less than a month after California fully reopened its economy.
Between mid-May and mid-June, the COVID-19 case rate over a two-week-period rose 18% among Black residents but declined 4% for Latino residents, 6% for white residents and 25% for Asian Americans. And the hospitalization rate for Black residents — who are less likely than other racial and ethnic groups to be vaccinated — grew by 11% while declining for Asian American residents by 12%, Latino residents by 29% and white residents by 37%.
Experts expressed shock and alarm at the rise in hospitalizations among Black residents. The trend underscores how — despite L.A. County’s devastating autumn-and-winter surge — many unvaccinated and susceptible people remain. Doctors warn the latest figures could be a prelude to rising deaths in the coming weeks and months.
“With low vaccination rates, plus the Delta variant, this can move actually very quickly to devastate the Black communities, particularly in our urban centers — again,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, epidemiologist at UC San Francisco. “When you see rising numbers of cases, you have to pay attention, because it means that those people are susceptible.”
The trends also underscore how, despite L.A. County’s respectable overall vaccination rates — which are on par with the statewide average — there remain many clusters of communities with much lower uptake of inoculations.
“It’s really quite uneven in our urban centers. Our Black communities have the lowest vaccination rates,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “What we’re seeing in L.A. is what we’ll see in other urban centers: The cases and the hospitalizations will rise among those who are unvaccinated,” and Black communities will be especially hard hit.
Making things worse is the swift spread of the Delta variant, which is possibly twice as infectious as the strains that spread around the world last year. “The Delta variant has really changed the game here,” Bibbins-Domingo said — a fact that should only further encourage younger people, who have been less enthusiastic about getting jabbed — to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
According to the most recent data, Black residents in L.A. County are roughly three times as likely as white residents to be diagnosed with the coronavirus, to be newly hospitalized with COVID-19 or to die from the disease.
Nurse LeShay Brown administers a Johnson & Johnson vaccination to A’ja Thrasher of View Park, in March.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
By RONG-GONG LIN II,
LUKE MONEY
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2021 UPDATED JULY 6, 2021 7:40 PM PT
Coronavirus case and hospitalization rates are worsening for Los Angeles County’s Black residents, a troubling sign less than a month after California fully reopened its economy.
Between mid-May and mid-June, the COVID-19 case rate over a two-week-period rose 18% among Black residents but declined 4% for Latino residents, 6% for white residents and 25% for Asian Americans. And the hospitalization rate for Black residents — who are less likely than other racial and ethnic groups to be vaccinated — grew by 11% while declining for Asian American residents by 12%, Latino residents by 29% and white residents by 37%.
Experts expressed shock and alarm at the rise in hospitalizations among Black residents. The trend underscores how — despite L.A. County’s devastating autumn-and-winter surge — many unvaccinated and susceptible people remain. Doctors warn the latest figures could be a prelude to rising deaths in the coming weeks and months.
“With low vaccination rates, plus the Delta variant, this can move actually very quickly to devastate the Black communities, particularly in our urban centers — again,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, epidemiologist at UC San Francisco. “When you see rising numbers of cases, you have to pay attention, because it means that those people are susceptible.”
The trends also underscore how, despite L.A. County’s respectable overall vaccination rates — which are on par with the statewide average — there remain many clusters of communities with much lower uptake of inoculations.
“It’s really quite uneven in our urban centers. Our Black communities have the lowest vaccination rates,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “What we’re seeing in L.A. is what we’ll see in other urban centers: The cases and the hospitalizations will rise among those who are unvaccinated,” and Black communities will be especially hard hit.
Making things worse is the swift spread of the Delta variant, which is possibly twice as infectious as the strains that spread around the world last year. “The Delta variant has really changed the game here,” Bibbins-Domingo said — a fact that should only further encourage younger people, who have been less enthusiastic about getting jabbed — to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
According to the most recent data, Black residents in L.A. County are roughly three times as likely as white residents to be diagnosed with the coronavirus, to be newly hospitalized with COVID-19 or to die from the disease.
