SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Govin Newsom, California’s governor, has a positive view of California’s response to the pandemic and the state’s plans to come to the other side during his annual State of the Nation address Tuesday night from the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. . Some of his statements did not have an important context or distort the facts:
DEATH RATIOS
Newsom calls California’s death rate “one of the lowest per capita in the country” with 134 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In support of his claim, he compares California to Texas and New York, the second and fourth most populous states, respectively.
According to data of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, California, ranks 28th in per capita deaths among states, with 137 deaths per 100,000.
Newsom is right that California has fewer deaths per capita than the national average – 158 deaths per 100,000 people – and has fared better than other major states such as Texas, Florida and New York.
VACCINATIONS
Newsom said California has “the strongest vaccination program in the country” and is doing more effective work than most countries.
At least 7.4 million people over the age of 18 in California have received at least one dose, according to the CDC. This is double the number in New York and obscures the 4.56 million doses in Texas. This is not surprising given that California, with nearly 40 million people, is the most populous state in the country.
But California is in the middle of the pack when it comes to the percentage of the adult population that has received at least one dose – about 24%, according to the CDC.
Cut another way, the state is in the bottom half of the states for total doses administered per 100,000 people.
FAIRNESS
Newsom said: “we are not just talking about vaccine money, we have designed our entire system to set aside 40% of the vaccines for the communities most affected.”
But although Newsom talked a lot about equity, the distribution system was not initially designed that way. California vaccinated with humans in December, but until last week did not dedicate 40% of the doses to the most vulnerable people, which added another level of decision-making to the process for local officials.
The change came after statistics showed that Californians were disproportionately infected and dying from the virus, as Latinos do not get an equal share of the state’s vaccines.
Under the new system, 40% of the vaccines must be reserved for postal codes in the bottom quartile of a formula that measures things like income, education level and access to transport. It does not explicitly consider race and ethnicity, but the postal codes reflect many minority neighborhoods.
So far, about 9.8% of the people who meet the new criteria have received at least one dose, compared to 14.4% of the people in the highest quartile, according to state data.
SCHOOL
Getting kids back in the classroom was one of the most difficult issues Newsom faces, and he signed a law last week aimed at re-learning personally on April 1st.
“Every day more and more schools announce reopening dates. In fact, almost 7,000 schools are open or planned to reopen for personal tuition by mid-April, ”he said from about 11,000 schools.
It is true that more districts are reopening those dates. However, negotiations with teachers’ unions are tense and according to the plan approved by the state legislature last week, no one needs to return.
Newsom also did not mention that there is no minimum to how often children must be in the classroom to count as reopening. For example, schools that offer only a few hours a week and can still qualify for new state funds.