“What we’re seeing in the L.A. study is definitely clear signals that people who live in more polluted neighborhoods tend to have higher death rates from COVID,” Jerrett told me.The maps commissioned by Physicians for Social Responsibility, he added, “paint a very similar picture to what we’re seeing.”
One other thing about those maps: The red-to-green color scheme I described as “pollution burden” is actually a metric called, which is used by state government to evaluate neighborhood-level environmental health. It takes into account a bunch of different factors, including air pollution, groundwater and soil contamination, levels of heart disease and asthma, and socioeconomic burdens such as poverty and unemployment.
I asked the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health about the maps. They responded with an emailed statement from the department’s chief science officer, Paul Simon. He said that because CalEnviroScreen takes into account all those factors — and because COVID-19 case rates and deaths are influenced by so many variables — “it’s not clear to what degree increased exposure to air pollution is contributing to the higher rates of COVID-19 in low income communities and communities of color.
Physicians for Social Responsibility also commissioned a visualization overlaying coronavirus case counts on a map showing the racial makeup of Los Angeles County.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is taking these disparities seriously. Under new guidelines that took effect this week, the state’s larger counties won’t be able to further reopen their economies “unless they reduce coronavirus infections in the hardest-hit places where the poor, Black people, Latinos and Pacific Islanders live,”To Argüello, the links between air pollution and COVID-19 illustrate the need for policies that prioritize healthier, more sustainable communities.
Anyone surprised by this is not thinking or not caring.
no shit
What happened to the anarchist-kidnappers story? Hahaha!
Tomorrow in the LA Slimes: Maps show how air pollution and drinking gasoline can be a deadly mix
Stay under your bed, citizen! Just two more weeks!