As Covid cases have begun to increase in areas outside of the South, people have also begun to notice that states with higher vaccination levels than California are having higher case counts than the Golden State:
California, the U.S. coronavirus hot spot early this year, in recent weeks has recorded some of the lowest case rates in the country — lower than some states that are more vaccinated.
One clear example is the New England states of Vermont and Maine. https://t.co/1jz4gEgzoy pic.twitter.com/00UUCsy7JW
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 8, 2021
. . .and the reason for that — AS TWITCHY READERS ALREADY KNOW — is because California’s really bad winter in 2020 created a “relatively significant amount of natural immunity”:
As horrific as the winter surge was, with hospitals overwhelmed and death rates hitting pandemic peaks, experts say California emerged from it with a relatively significant amount of natural immunity. https://t.co/1jz4gEgzoy
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 8, 2021
Here are California’s numbers via the NYT that show the 2020 winter spike:
Yet they’re still pushing mandates for all and not counting a prior infection as proof that someone is safe from the virus:
Experts stress that case rates are just one data point — and that a more telling metrics at this point are hospitalizations and death rates, which are low across the board in both California and New England due to the power of vaccines. https://t.co/1jz4gEgzoy pic.twitter.com/ZDqHki4TLT
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 8, 2021
And all of this was predicted, too, as these states enter fall and winter and folks start moving indoors:
Maine, with a vaccination rate just under Vermont’s at 69%, has been struggling the hardest in the region, breaking its single-day record in daily new cases last week. https://t.co/1jz4gEgzoy pic.twitter.com/yrJOaKPm86
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 8, 2021
And a similar pattern to what happened in California in 2020 just happened in Florida. Yes, the vaccination rate played a role but the other driver of cases was a large pool of people with no prior immunity. And it’s why this spike won’t be repeated next summer just like it’s not repeating in California right now:
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