According to data compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), there have been 3,352 laboratory-confirmed cases and 65 deaths from COVID-19 virus in Los Angeles County since late February 2020.  This equates to a 1.9 percent mortality rate out of all cases or 6.5 deaths out of every 1 million persons in the county or 335 cases (not deaths) per 1 million persons.

Public health data has been sorted in the data tables below by the highest, lowest and moderate rate of cases, not by deaths. 

Location

The highest rates of COVID-19 cases are located in Democrat West Los Angeles and Hollywood communities (103 to 201 cases per 100,000) compared to Republican suburbs in East LA County with the lowest case rate (0 to 17 cases per 100,000).  A moderate level of rate of cases is located in Democrat Central Los Angeles in lower-income communities (15 to 34 cases per 100,000). 

Age

The typical age for contracting the virus ranges from 18 to 65, with a median of about 35 years old and only 20 percent in the elderly 65 and above age group.  Less than 1 percent are children under age 18. 

Income

Income is bimodal -- meaning greater income is associated with both the highest disease rates (Democrat West LA -- $33,694 to $112,927 per household) and the lowest rates (Republican Eastern suburbs -- $66,891 to $187,444).  Those living in Central LA County with the lowest household income levels ($25,161 to $30,579) have a moderate disease rate. 

Occupation

Occupation is highly associated with a higher rate of cases of COVID-19.  White-collar communities clustered in Democrat West LA County have much higher rate of cases (134 out of every 100,000) than in suburban Republican Eastern LA County with mixed blue collar and white-collar occupations (10.5 out of every 100,000). 

Ethnicity

The strongest ethnic association with high COVID-19 case rates is the general category “White.”  The weakest ethnic association is “Asian” as shown in Data Table D below.

Summary 

The sorting of data shown below indicates some of the cliches circulating in the media about COVID-19 are erroneous in LA County:

• Areas with high Chinese ethnicity are not related to COVID-19 prevalence.
• The vulnerable elderly do not necessarily have a higher proportion of cases (80 percent of cases are under age 65).
• Lower income communities living in dense family networks do not have a significantly higher incidence of cases.
• More religiously observant Republicans in Eastern LA County apparently did not spread COVID-19 more than secularized communities in West LA up to the March 20 “shelter-in-place” order.
• There have been only five cases of COVID-19 out of 2,500 homeless persons on skid row in Downtown LA (0.20% rate) indicating the homeless have one of the lowest rates of virus cases in the County despite their living conditions and high density.

This brief, non-scientific survey also suggests that 1) there are other social and behavioral factors involved in the proliferation of COVID-19; and 2) that the public health policies of social distancing and shutdowns of nonessential businesses and churches and synagogues are not targeted to those more likely, but unexplained, factors. Prime virus carriers plausibly could be those with compromised immune systems (drugs, chemotherapy, smoking, bad diet, no sunlight exposure, entertainment industry drug culture) and/or global travelers. If so, public health policies should be targeted to those carriers and not shutdowns of the entire economy. Political correctness could be a factor in proliferating virus above seasonal flu rates.  Readers are cautioned that correlation does not mean causation.  

Table A - Representative Highest Rate Cov-19 Cases – LA County (All Democrat)

Data Table B - Representative Lowest Covid-19 Rates – LA County (all Republican)

Data Table C - Representative Moderate Covid-19 Rates in Blue Collar, All Democrat Areas

Data Table D – Representative Asian Communities in LA County – Covid-19 Cases (Mixed Political Affiliation)