“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / You’re turning heads when you walk through the door,” he sings, in a few words assuring a cross-section of generations that he’s got your back, girl, and you should like yourself a little bit more.

Payne, who died Wednesday after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at just 31, was also the last solo voice on the band’s final single, “History” — effectively opening and closing the monolithic run of one of the biggest boy bands of all time.

While the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear — Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” although they didn’t offer details on how they established that or whether it was intentional — in life, Payne was a critical part of the internet’s first boy band, one that secured an indelible place in the hearts of millennial and Gen Z fans.

How One Direction became the internet’s first boy band

Before One Direction became One Direction, its members auditioned for the U.K.’s “The X Factor” separately. The judges decided to put five promising, but not yet excellent, boys into a group. They were Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Payne, who together finished third in the 2010 competition.

As Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield points out, it was an “unprecedented” way for a boy band to get their start.

“They were sort of assigned to be together. And you don’t expect longevity out of that situation. Honestly, you don’t even expect one good pop record to come out of that situation,” he says. And yet, not only did it work, but One Direction essentially created “a new template for pop stardom, really.”

The show allowed Day 1 fans to follow their career before their official 2011 launch with “What Makes You Beautiful.” Nascent fans could use rising social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr to find community, draw attention to the group and, in the earliest days, speak directly to the members.

“I honestly made a Twitter so that I could keep up with One Direction, and that’s how I made so many different friends,” says Gabrielle Kopera, 28, a fan from California who remembers the band hosting livestreams and chats. “Sometimes they would say something back and it was so much fun. I feel like that fan interaction doesn’t even happen anymore.”

That feeling of accessibility reinforced the group’s personality and relationship with fans, says Maura Johnston, a freelance music writer and Boston College adjunct instructor.

“The fact that they came up on this British TV show and they became this worldwide phenomenon, I don’t think that would have happened as acutely and as quickly and as immersive without social media, without Twitter or without people being able to mobilize around the globe,” she says.

One Direction and their fans

Millennial and Gen Z audiences practically grew up with One Direction, but the band was truly ubiquitous. That, Johnston says, is at least partially attributable to arriving in a very different media environment from today’s.

“It was a lot more focused,” she says of the early 2010s. “Algorithmic sorting of stuff hadn’t really taken hold. So, there was this broader, mass approach. … They were one of the last gasps of that mass phenomenon, that anyone of any age, even if they weren’t a fan, had to take notice to.”

But it takes more than omnipresence to cultivate a loyal fanbase. And there were myriad reasons why listeners were attracted to One Direction.

“They were five very different musical personalities, along with five very different personalities,” says Sheffield.

They broke the rules associated with traditional boy bands, too: “They co-wrote many of their songs. They didn’t do, you know, corny, choreographed steps on stage,” he said.

After the news of Payne’s death, Kopera says she “got so many messages from people I haven’t talked to in years reaching out because I think everyone kind of realized that it does feel like we just lost a family member.”

That sentiment was mirrored in the masses of fans who gathered Wednesday outside Buenos Aires’ Casa Sur Hotel, feeding a burgeoning makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes as police stood guard.

“I’ve always loved One Direction since I was little,” said Juana Relh, 18, outside Payne’s hotel. “To see that he died and that there will never be another reunion of the boys is unbelievable, it kills me.”

Liam Payne’s place in the band, and its legacy

Payne was a “brooding” older brother-type in One Direction, says Johnston. He also co-wrote many songs, especially in their later career — like the Fleetwood Mac-channeling “What A Feeling” and “Fireproof.”

“He was this grounding force in the band,” Johnston says.

In an Instagram tribute, Tomlinson called Payne “the most vital part of One Direction.”

“His experience from a young age, his perfect pitch, his stage presence, his gift for writing. The list goes on. Thank you for shaping us Liam,” he wrote.

“I always remember that he was the responsible and the sensible one of the group, and I feel like he wore his heart on his sleeve,” Kopera says.

Payne had recently been vocal about struggling with alcoholism, posting a YouTube video in July 2023 where he said he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. Buenos Aires police said they found clonazepam — a central nervous system depressant — and other over-the-counter drugs in Payne’s hotel room, along with a whiskey bottle in the courtyard where he was found.

“Looking at what happened to Liam, it just makes you feel even more sad, that it just feels like he needed help,” Kopera says. “And it’s so scary to think about how the entertainment industry can just, like, eat up artists.”

After One Direction disbanded in 2016, Payne’s solo career — a single R&B-pop album in 2019, “LP1,” and a number of singles here and there — never took off the same way as some of his bandmates. He was “the least successful,” Sheffield says. “It’s safe to say that on the terms that he was going for, he didn’t really find what he wanted to do.”

“It’s hard, transitioning from being a boy bander to be a pop star,” Johnston says.

At Payne’s solo shows, Sheffield explains, “He would show a little montage of One Direction performing, which is the kind of thing you don’t do when you’re starting out as a solo artist. But fans took that in the spirit it was offered, which is a very generous statement that he’s like, ‘Yep, you’re here because of this history that we share, and I’m here because of that same history.’”

Despite Payne’s struggles and the tragedy of his death, Kopera is confident “his legacy is going to always point back to One Direction.”

For fans, the same is true.

“When I look back on One Direction, I’m like, that was my girlhood. One Direction was the soundtrack to growing up, and I’m so thankful for it,” she says. “They really were just a group of normal boys.”

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File # SC233490002

Details:

On Friday, December 15, 2023, at 7:30 p.m., investigators from The Riverside County Sheriff’s Corrections Central Investigations, were notified of an in-custody death. It was learned Shaundale Booker, a 21-year-old male from Moreno Valley, was admitted to a local hospital for a recently diagnosed illness.

While Booker was being treated for his illness his medical condition worsened. Hospital medical staff performed life-saving measures. However, he was ultimately pronounced deceased by attending hospital physicians. There were no signs of foul play. Booker’s family was notified of his death.

The investigation is ongoing, and no further information is available. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Investigator Arturo Rodriguez at (951) 922–7152.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # BC233080002

Details:

On Saturday, November 4, 2023, deputies from the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility responded to an unresponsive male in the intake area. Custody staff and jail medical personnel immediately administered life-saving measures. Paramedics responded and assumed life-saving measures. The male, however, was ultimately pronounced deceased.

Deputies secured the area and began an investigation. Investigators from the Corrections Central Investigations Bureau responded and assumed the investigation. The inmate has been identified as 58-year-old Charles Giurbino of Hemet. There are no signs of foul play, and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Investigator Brett Divine at (951) 922-7152.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # RC232570001

Details:

On Thursday, September 14th, 2023, deputies from the Robert Presley Detention Center were alerted to an unresponsive male inmate in the intake area. Deputies and jail medical personnel immediately administered life-saving measures. Paramedics responded and assumed life-saving measures. However, he was ultimately pronounced deceased.

Investigators from the Corrections Central Investigations Bureau responded and assumed the investigation. The inmate has been identified as 48 year old Damon Bietz, of Riverside. There are no signs of foul play, and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Investigator Art Rodriguez at (951) 922-7152.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # BC232390006

Details:

On Sunday, August 27, 2023, deputies from the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility were alerted to an unresponsive male inmate in a housing unit. Deputies and jail medical personnel immediately administered life-saving measures. Paramedics responded and assumed life-saving measures. However, he was ultimately pronounced deceased.

Investigators from the Corrections Central Investigations Bureau responded and assumed the investigation. The inmate has been identified as 31 year old Tavae Stalks Walker, of Jurupa Valley. There are no signs of foul play, and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Investigator Justin Williams at (951) 922-7152.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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File # G231120015

Details:

On Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 2:57 p.m., deputies assigned to the Jurupa Valley Station responded to a parking lot located in the 3500 block of Hamner Avenue, Norco, to check on the welfare of a male who was seated in a Dodge van. When deputies arrived, they found a 58-year-old male seated in the vehicle and was unresponsive. Deputies entered the vehicle and determined he was deceased.

Investigators from the Jurupa Valley Station responded and assumed the investigation. During a search of the vehicle, investigators found a suicide note and a revolver. The decedent appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Investigator Ko from the Jurupa Valley Station at 951-955-2600.

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Multiple unsuccessful attempts were made to stop the altercation. The suspect was ultimately taken into custody after a taser was used. Shortly after being detained, the suspect became unresponsive. Paramedics were summoned, and deputies began life-saving measures. The suspect was taken to a nearby hospital and eventually pronounced deceased. The decedent’s identity is not being released at this time, pending notification to the family.

Investigators from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Force Investigations Detail responded and assumed the investigation. No other details are currently available. Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Riverside County District Attorney Investigator Carranza or Riverside County Sheriff’s Investigator Bishop at (951) 955-2777.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robert Durst, the wealthy New York real estate heir and failed fugitive dogged for decades with suspicion in the disappearance and deaths of those around him before he was convicted last year of killing his best friend, has died. He was 78.

Durst died of natural causes Monday in a hospital outside the California prison where he was serving a life sentence, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Durst had been held in a hospital lockup in Stockton due to a litany of ailments.

Durst was convicted in September of shooting Susan Berman at point-blank range at her Los Angeles home in 2000. He was sentenced Oct. 14 to life in prison without parole.

Durst had long been suspected of killing his wife, Kathie, who went missing in New York 1982 and was declared legally dead decades later.

But only after Los Angeles prosecutors proved he silenced Berman before she could tell police she helped him cover up Kathie’s killing was Durst indicted by a New York grand jury in November for second-degree murder in his wife’s death.

Westchester County prosecutors, who had been trying to get Durst transferred there to face the charge, said they planned to reveal new details about the case in coming days.

“After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst’s family,” District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a statement. “We had hoped to allow them the opportunity to see Mr. Durst finally face charges for Kathleen’s murder because we know that all families never stop wanting closure, justice and accountability.”

Los Angeles prosecutors also told jurors Durst got away with murder in Texas after shooting a man who discovered his identity when he was hiding out in Galveston after Berman’s killing. Durst was acquitted of murder in that case in 2003, after testifying he shot the man as they struggled for a gun.

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said jurors told him after the verdict that they believed Durst had killed his wife and murdered Morris Black in Texas.

Durst discussed the cases and made several damning statements including a stunning confession during an unguarded moment in the six-part HBO documentary series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”

The show made his name known to a new generation and brought renewed scrutiny and suspicion from authorities.

The night before the final episode aired, Durst was arrested in Berman’s killing while hiding out under an alias in a New Orleans hotel, where he was caught with a gun, more than $40,000 cash and a head-to-shoulders latex mask.

The finale’s climax came with him mumbling to himself in a bathroom while still wearing hot mic saying: “You’re caught! What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

The quotes were later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic effect but the production — done with Durst’s cooperation against the advice from his lawyer and friends — dredged up new evidence including an envelope that connected Durst to the scene of Berman’s killing as well as incriminating statements he made.

Police had received a note directing them to Berman’s home with only the word “CADAVER” written in block letters.

In interviews given between 2010 and 2015, Durst told the makers of the “The Jinx” that he didn’t write the note, but whoever did had killed her.

“You’re writing a note to the police that only the killer could have written,” Durst said.

His defense lawyers conceded in the run-up to trial that Durst had written the note, and prosecutors said it amounted to a confession.

Clips from “The Jinx,” and from the 2010 movie “All Good Things” in which Ryan Gosling played a fictionalized version of Durst, had starring roles at trial.

As did Durst himself. His attorneys again took the risk of putting him on the stand for what turned out to be about three weeks of testimony. It didn’t work as it had in Texas.

Under devastating cross-examination by prosecutor Lewin, Durst admitted he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to get out of trouble.

“‘Did you kill Susan Berman?’ is strictly a hypothetical,” Durst said from the stand. “I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.”

The jury promptly returned a guilty verdict.

It long appeared he would avoid any such convictions.

Durst went on the run in late 2000 after New York authorities reopened an investigation into his wife’s disappearance, renting a modest apartment in Galveston and disguising himself as a mute woman.

In 2001, the body parts of a neighbor, Black, began washing up in Galveston Bay.

Arrested in the killing, Durst jumped bail. He was arrested for shoplifting a sandwich six weeks later in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he had gone to college. Police found $37,000 cash and two handguns in his car.

He would testify that Black had pulled a gun on him and died when the weapon went off during a struggle. He told jurors in detail how he bought tools and dismembered and disposed of Black’s body. While he was cleared of murder, he pleaded guilty to violating his bail, and to evidence tampering for the dismemberment. He served three years in prison.

Durst had bladder cancer and his health deteriorated during the Berman trial. He was escorted into court in a wheelchair wearing prison attire each day because his attorneys said he was unable to change into a suit. But the judge declined further delays after a 14-month pause during the coronavirus pandemic.

Attorney Dick DeGuerin said Durst was “very, very sick” at his sentencing hearing and it was the worst he looked in the 20 years he spent representing him.

Durst entered the courtroom with wide-eyed vacant stare. Near the end of the hearing after Berman’s loved ones told the judge that her death upended their lives, Durst coughed hard and appeared to struggle to breathe. His chest heaved and he pulled his mask down below his mouth and began to gulp for air.

He was hospitalized two days later with COVID-19 and DeGuerin said he was on a ventilator. But Durst apparently recovered and was transferred to state prison where mug shots showed no sign of a ventilator.

The son of real estate magnate Seymour Durst, Robert Durst was born April 12, 1943, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He would later say that at age 7, he witnessed his mother’s death in a fall from their home.

He graduated with an economics degree in 1965 from Lehigh University, where he played lacrosse. He entered a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he met Berman, but dropped out and returned to New York in 1969.

He became a developer in the family business, but his father passed him over to make his younger brother, and rival, Douglas the head of the Durst Organization in 1992.

Douglas Durst testified at trial that he feared his brother wanted to kill him.

“Bob lived a sad, painful and tragic life,” he said in a statement Monday. “We hope his death brings some closure to those he hurt.”

In 1971, Robert Durst met Kathie McCormack, and the two married on his 30th birthday in 1973.

In January 1982, his wife was a student in her final year at medical school when she disappeared. She had shown up unexpectedly at a friend’s dinner party in Newtown, Connecticut, then left after a call from her husband to return to their home in South Salem, New York.

Robert Durst told police he last saw her when he put her on a train to stay at their apartment in Manhattan because she had classes the next day.

Prosecutors said Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, posed as Kathie Durst to call Albert Einstein College of Medicine the next morning to say she was sick and wouldn’t be at her hospital rotation. The call provided an alibi for Robert Durst because it made it appear his wife made it safely to Manhattan after he saw her.

He would divorce her eight years later, claiming spousal abandonment, and in 2017, at her family’s request, she was declared legally dead.

Kathie McCormack Durst’s family said they plan to provide an update on Jan. 31 — the 40th anniversary of her disappearance — into an investigation of others who helped cover up her killing, attorney Robert Abrams said.

Robert Durst is survived by his second wife Debrah Charatan, whom he married in 2000. He had no children.

Under California law, a conviction is vacated if a defendant dies while the case is under appeal, said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School.

Attorney Chip Lewis said Durst had appealed.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. saw remarkable increases in the death rates for heart disease, diabetes and some other common killers in 2020, and experts believe a big reason may be that many people with dangerous symptoms made the lethal mistake of staying away from the hospital for fear of catching the coronavirus.

The death rates — posted online this week by federal health authorities — add to the growing body of evidence that the number of lives lost directly or indirectly to the coronavirus in the U.S. is far greater than the officially reported COVID-19 death toll of nearly 600,000 in 2020-21.

For months now, researchers have known that 2020 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, primarily because of COVID-19. But the data released this week showed the biggest increases in the death rates for heart disease and diabetes in at least 20 years.

“I would probably use the word `alarming,’” said Dr. Tannaz Moin, a diabetes expert at UCLA, said of the trends.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 3.4 million Americans died in 2020, an all-time record. Of those deaths, more than 345,000 were directly attributed to COVID-19. The CDC also provided the numbers of deaths for some of the leading causes of mortality, including the nation’s top two killers, heart disease and cancer.

But the data released this week contains the death rates — that is, fatalities relative to the population — which is considered a better way to see the impact from year to year, since the population fluctuates.

Of the causes of death for which the CDC had full-year provisional data, nine registered increases. Those included Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, chronic liver disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

Some of the increases were relatively small, but some were dramatic. The heart disease death rate — which has been falling over the long term — rose to 167 deaths per 100,000 population from 161.5 the year before. It was only the second time in 20 years that the rate had ticked up. This jump, of more than 3%, surpassed the less than 1% increase seen in 2015.

In raw numbers, there were about 32,000 more heart disease deaths than the year before.

Diabetes deaths rose to 24.6 per 100,000 last year, from 21.6 in 2019. That translated to 13,000 more diabetes deaths than in 2019. The 14% increase was the largest rise in the diabetes death rate in decades.

The death rate from Alzheimer’s was up 8%, Parkinson’s 11%, high blood pressure 12% and stroke 4%.

The CDC offered only the statistics, not explanations. The agency also did not say how many of the fatalities were people who had been infected with — and weakened by — the coronavirus but whose deaths were attributed primarily to heart disease, diabetes or other conditions.

Some experts believe a larger reason is that many patients did not seek treatment in an emergency because they feared becoming infected with the virus.

“When hospitalization rates for COVID would go up, we would see dramatic declines in patients presenting to the emergency room with heart attacks, stroke or heart failure,” Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a Northwestern University researcher who is president-elect of the American Heart Association.

Other possible explanations also point indirectly to the coronavirus.

Many patients stopped taking care of themselves during the crisis, gaining weight or cutting back on taking high blood pressure medications, he said. Experts said the stress of the crisis, the lockdown-related disappearance of exercise options, and the loss of jobs and the accompanying health insurance were all factors, too.

Increases in Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and West Virginia pushed the four into the group of states with the highest rates of death from heart disease, the CDC data showed. For diabetes, similar changes happened in Indiana, New Mexico, West Virginia and some other Southern and Plains states.

The death rate from the nation’s No. 2 killer, cancer, continued its decline during the year of COVID-19. It fell about 2% in 2020, similar to the drop seen from 2018 to 2019, even though cancer screenings and cancer care declined or were often postponed last year.

Lloyd-Jones’ theory for the decline: Many of the virus’s victims were fighting cancer, “but COVID intervened and became the primary cause of death.”

Earlier research done by demographer Kenneth Johnson at the University of New Hampshire found that an unprecedented 25 states saw more deaths than births overall last year.

The states were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Traditionally the vast majority of states have more births than deaths.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The coronavirus death toll in California reached 30,000 on Monday, another staggering milestone as the nation’s most populous state endures the worst surge of the nearly yearlong pandemic.

Newly confirmed infections are rising at a dizzying rate of more than a quarter-million a week and during the weekend a record 1,163 deaths were reported. Los Angeles County is one of the epicenters and health officials there are telling residents to wear a mask even when at home if they go outside regularly and live with someone elderly or otherwise at high risk.

“The damaging impact to our families and local hospitals from this surge is the worst disaster our county has experienced for decades,” health director Barbara Ferrer said.

It took California six months to record its first 10,000 deaths. But in barely a month, the total rose from 20,000 to 30,000, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. California ranks third nationally, behind Texas and New York, which is No. 1 with nearly 40,000 deaths.

California has deployed 88 refrigerated trailers to use as makeshift morgues mostly in hard-hit Southern California, where traditional storage space is dwindling.

Hospitalizations also have exploded in California and many hospitals are stretched to the limit. Still, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s top health officer said there is a sliver of hope, with hospitalizations leveling off in the last week and vaccinations about to shift into a higher gear.

Mass vaccinations for thousands of medical workers will be conducted at baseball stadiums in Los Angeles and San Diego and at fairgrounds in Fresno and Sacramento. They are among cities nationwide converting huge parking lots into massive vaccination stations to ramp up inoculations after the initial rollout fell below expectations.

Orange County and Disneyland Resort announced that a guest parking lot near the Anaheim theme park will be a vaccination site.

Meanwhile, new hospital admissions dropped from about 3,500 each day earlier this month to about 2,500, “a significant difference” that shows the earlier holiday surge from Christmas and Hanukkah “isn’t as significant as we had anticipated,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Yet recent frightening jumps in new positive cases show the state may simply have brought itself time to prepare for what officials still expect to be an end-of-month peak in part driven by New Year’s celebrations, Ghaly and Newsom said.

The state may have “a little breathing room,” Ghaly said, enough for hospitals to prepare, to ensure they can provide enough oxygen both in medical facilities and when sending patients home, and for 1,000 newly arriving contract medical workers to be augmented by another 1,000 or so before the surge peaks.

“I don’t want to think that we’re out of the woods in any measure,” Ghaly said, adding later that “We’re in the early parts of that holiday surge. It looks encouraging at the moment.”

Newsom acknowledged the rollout of vaccines has been too slow and he pledged 1 million shots will be administered this week, more than twice what’s been done so far.

That effort will require what Newsom called an “all-hands-on-deck approach,” including having vaccinations dispensed by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, dentists, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, and members of the California National Guard.

Ghaly and Newsom said relatively few medical workers and veterans seemed to be refusing or delaying the shots, contradicting what some local health officials have found.

Acceptance will vary by region, they acknowledged, but said a state survey found only about 2% of University of California medical system healthcare workers had declined the vaccine, while 81% of residents at five state-operated veterans’ homes had been vaccinated.

“That gives you a sense of the magnitude of people that are happy to accept the vaccines and gives you a sense that perhaps we are are more successful” than some local surveys indicated, Newsom said.

The state will vastly expand its effort with new mass vaccination sites at parking lots for LA’s Dodger Stadium, Petco Park in San Diego and the CalExpo site in Sacramento.

Cars lined up early Monday near the downtown stadium in San Diego, where officials aimed to inoculate 5,000 health care workers a day at the “vaccination super station”

The first day was limited to 2,500 people to work out kinks. Medical staff under a row of white tents injected health care workers as they drove through, then directed them to wait nearby for 15 minutes to be observed for any reactions.

“It’s kind of like a Disneyland ride” with cars moving through, said Heather Buschman, spokeswoman for UC San Diego Health, whose medical staff was administering the shots. “People are eager to come out and grateful for this opportunity,” she said, with more than 12,500 health care workers in San Diego County initially scheduling an appointment.

The city of Los Angeles announced late Sunday that its huge COVID-19 testing site at Dodger Stadium will be transformed into a massive vaccination center by the end of the week. That will temporarily reduce LA County’s testing capacity but with 12,000 inoculations forecast daily it will more than triple daily vaccinations.

Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, applauded such vaccination super sites. He said officials should be able to keep vaccinating health care workers and the elderly in long-term care facilities even as it prepares to start inoculating those age 75 and up, teachers, emergency workers, and those who work in food and agriculture.

“Our country should be able to walk and chew gum when comes to its immunization program,” Omer said.

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