South Central PA News

Of the 787,095 Allegheny County residents estimated to have caught COVID-19 as of December 29, 952 (0.12 percent) have died.

That's according to a South Central PA News analysis of data collected and published in the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Allegheny County's 2019 population was 1,218,452.

Herd Immunity

Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said in May that she believes the methodology for attributing COVID-19 "cause of death" incentivizes hospitals to over count.

COVID-19 counting errors notwithstanding, there is reason to believe that some communities are approaching the point when "herd immunity" is achieved. Herd immunity happens when enough of the population has become immune to the virus from previous infection that it effectively protects those who are not immune.

According to Nobel laureate and Stanford University biophysicist Dr. Michael Levitt, "herd immunity" kicks in and viruses burn out after infecting 15 to 20 percent of the population.

The estimated total COVID-19 infected in Allegheny County makes up an estimated 64 percent of its total 2019 population of 1,218,452, exceeding Levitt's threshold.