Does the Los Angeles County Public Health Department Still Have Any Credibility?

September 7, 2023 - The Los Angeles County Health Department is telling us they "have been seeing a gradual and consistent rise in COVID-19 transmission" over the past few weeks. This alleged information, unsupported by any reliable data, is accompanied by various recommendations, including a plug for the latest iteration of the Covid vaccine.

After three-and-a-half years of recommendations from the health department, headed by a non-doctor, non-epidemiologist - none of which stemmed or in any way assisted in ameliorating the severity of the Covid-19 epidemic - it is unclear why anyone should listen to their advice about anything.

The mandate to wear masks did nothing to stem the transmission of the virus. During one surge in July 2021, Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health, reimposed the mandate that had been temporarily relaxed, but the slope of the graphs showing growing case numbers did not reflect any change whatsoever. If anything, it increased.

The concerted push to vaccinate the public, including restrictions on who could attend concerts, restaurants, and enter other public places, was based on data that soon showed very little difference between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in terms of rates of infection. When the data could no longer be denied (and the reason to segregate the unvaccinated), the health department removed the page showing that data from their website in June 2022.

They then launched a page that showed Covid Outcomes by Vaccination Status. This very soon showed that individuals in most age ranges who received Covid booster shots were contracting Covid at a far greater rate as those who had not, in some cases at a rate as much as twofold. That page was also removed from the LADPH website.

Over time, the health department also stopped calculating case fatality rates (well before they no longer had a handle on total case numbers). When it became clear that most Covid deaths involved underlying conditions, the health department ceased publicizing that information, as well.

The only way the Los Angeles County Health Department can hope to regain any of their lost credibility is to clean house, starting at the top. Barbara Ferrer is the face of pandemic fear-mongering and evasive data manipulation. She has to go. So do all of her top lieutenants. And even then, it will take a director with the courage to look at the truth - and tell it - and a great deal of time before the public should be willing to trust a single 'recommendation' from this agency.