California and Florida have a lot in common – they are both coastal states, with warmer climates that provide year-round sunshine – both have massive tourism draw, with millions of people who visit from around the country every year – and both are being flooded with illegal immigrants – which, in the case of California, is completely intentional.
In spite of their surface-level similarities, the two states could not be more different politically, and that stark contrast is being highlighted like never before thanks to the perpetual Covid-19 pandemic.
The distinction between the two state’s responses to the Covid-19 virus is unmistakable, and as time continues on – bringing more data with it – it’s looking like there will be one strategy that ends up far-and-away above the other.
Let’s just say: If we called it now, Florida would be the winner.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), California’s new daily covid case rate is DOUBLE that of Florida’s, despite more of the state’s eligible population being vaccinated and having had mask mandates in place for months. The state has experienced a sharp uptick in cases over recent weeks after they had seen a drop in cases since coming out of summer.
Florida is actually leading the nation with the lowest rate of new daily cases of any state.
Just weeks ago, Governor Newsom boasted that the Golden State “continues to lead the nation” with their authoritarian response to the virus, but instead of continuing to see improvement, Covid-19 cases have stopped falling and begun to rise substantially. In fact, California is no longer listed as “orange” (moderate) in the CDC tracker, they have claimed back up to the agency’s “red” (high) designation with their recent outbreak.
Meanwhile, in Florida and several other southern states, the spread of the virus has continued to slow down. Several of these states -mostly the republican strongholds – are doing much better than California and other locked-down areas thanks to their policy decisions.
In addition to Florida and Texas, the case rate is down across the entire gulf coast. All are much lower than California and New York even though they ditched mask orders, opposed vaccine mandates, have fewer citizens who are vaccinated, and experienced higher transmission over the summer.
Could it have something to do with a little something called natural immunity?
“There are early indications that the decline in the delta surge at the national level in the US has ended.
[19 states have increasing transmission] that had previously appeared to be declining.
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