2022

"California doesn’t know how many people died in record summer heat wave"


The Los Angeles Times interviewed Dr. David Eisenman about how California tracks mortality during extreme heat events.

It was the worst California heat wave ever recorded in September — an epic grilling that disabled one of Twitter’s main data centers, pushed the power grid to its limit and triggered a succession of weather and safety alerts.

For 10 grueling days, meteorologists tracked record-setting temperatures as they boiled across the state — 116 degrees in Sacramento, 114 in Napa, 109 in Long Beach. But for all the data on soaring temperatures, there was little information on the heat wave’s human toll, or how many people had been sickened or even killed.

The state’s ongoing struggle to account for heat wave illnesses and deaths — despite promises to improve monitoring — has frustrated some public health experts who say the lack of timely information puts lives in jeopardy.

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Faculty Referenced by this Article

David Eisenman
David Eisenman
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Dana Rose Garfin
Dana Rose Garfin
Community Health Sciences
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Robert Kim-Farley
Robert J. Kim-Farley

Robert J. Kim-Farley, MD, MPH, is a Professor-in-Residence with joint appointments in the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health Sciences

Community Health Sciences Epidemiology
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Kimberley Shoaf
Community Health Sciences
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glik, deborah
Deborah Glik
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Jessica Gipson
Jessica Gipson
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Samuel Stratton
Samuel Stratton
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Michael Prelip
Michael Prelip
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Alina Dorian
Alina Dorian
Community Health Sciences
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Philip Massey headshot
Philip Massey
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Judith M. Siegel
Judith M. Siegel
Community Health Sciences
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Dana Hunnes
Dana Hunnes
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Gilbert Gee
Gilbert C. Gee
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Shira Shafir
Shira Shafir
Community Health Sciences Epidemiology
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Dr. Michael Goldstein
Michael Goldstein
Community Health Sciences
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Dr. Donald Morisky
Donald E. Morisky
Community Health Sciences
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