LOS ANGELES — The head of the Los Angeles County Public Health Department says expressions of hatred and daily threats against herself and public health professionals across the country are worrisome and disheartening.

Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday that the death threats against her started last month during a COVID-19 Facebook Live briefing when someone casually suggested that she should be shot.

Ferrer said she didn’t immediately see the threat but her husband, children and colleagues did. She said threats against the public health agency by email, public postings and letters have been going on since March.

Ferrer conducts televised briefings that have made her the public face of efforts to fight the virus in Los Angeles County.

“The virus has changed our world as we know it, and people are angry,” Ferrer said in a statement. “And while frustration boils over in our communities as people are done with this virus, this virus is not done with us.”