RESEARCH RELEASE: LA Neighborhoods and COVID-19 Medical Vulnerability Indicators
Los Angeles (November 2020) — The UCLA Luskin Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and UCLA BRITE Center for Science, Research and Policy, in partnership with the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, are pleased to present this critical new research as part of a series of COVID-19 Equity Research Initiative policy briefs documenting the systemic racial inequalities of the pandemic. This brief is an important contribution to identifying and prioritizing the needs of LA County public health in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The authors develop a framework for, in effect, disaggregating a diverse population’s complex vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and identifying subpopulations at different risks geographically to help local decision makers, public health officials and scientists pinpoint which areas in LA are most at risk of being infected with the coronavirus. The resulting research may enable local agencies to help determine equitable distribution of resources that could reduce and potentially halt new infections in areas of particularly high risk.