Barbara Ferrer, director of LA County’s Department of Public Health, fought back tears at Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing. “While this trend line provides a frightening visual of our reality, the more terrible truth is that over 8,000 people, sorry, over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back. And their deaths are an incalculable loss to their friends and their family, as well as our community,” she said.
Death rates in LA County and nationwide continue to break records. More than 3,000 Americans died from COVID on Wednesday. That’s more than those who died on 9/11 and more than those who died during the Pearl Harbor attack.
The country is pinning its hopes on vaccines that are arriving soon. Today, the FDA voted to recommend Pfizer's COVID vaccine for emergency use in the U.S. That means California’s frontline health care workers could begin getting the shots in a few days.