Orange County Reaches 5,000 COVID-19 Death Milestone

Andrew Noymer, a UC Irvine [associate] professor of population health and disease prevention, told county officials in March of last year that he had done a “quick calculation and I figured (the death toll) would be in the 4,000s.” Noymer added, “All is not said and done yet and we’re at 5,000 so I was wrong. Some people thought that was too extreme at the time, but to be fair, people didn’t understand what we were in for. They thought it was some new kind of flu, which is how people described it. It exceeded my worst, somewhat pessimistic forecast and that’s a drag.”