The Tucker/Berenson Corridor, and the blue state holdouts
By The COVID surge is of course concentrated heavily among the unvaccinated — the vaccines are extremely effective! — and so it’s not surprising which states are seeing the worst numbers:
If I were in Florida, and I thank my personal god I am not, I’d be pretty tired of all that Ron DeSantis winning by this point.
Still, blue states can’t be entirely complacent:
Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia have adjusted rates below the national average. In the region, however, lower vaccination rates in the Black community have concentrated cases there to an extraordinary degree. Before vaccines, Black people represented about one-third of new coronavirus cases in Maryland and half in D.C. In the latest data, Black people represent just under half of the new cases in Maryland and more than 80 percent in D.C.
In jurisdictions where it’s politically viable, we need more vaccine mandates and more positive incentives to take the vaccines. Solving the problem of MAGA non-vaccination is harder but there’s still plenty of lower-hanging fruit out there in absolute numbers.