On Jan.15, I published an opinion article in Newsmax that documented which states were succeeding in inoculating their residents with the two FDA-approved vaccines, and which states were failing.
To honor Donald Trump's extraordinarily successful presidency, I am updating these crucial metrics, to reflect his unprecedented medical miracle, "Operation Warp Speed," which in nine months financed the development and distribution of two life-saving vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
A third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which will probably require just one dose instead of the two doses for the approved vaccines, might be greenlighted by the FDA in February.
On Jan. 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "COVID Data Tracker" reported that of the 41,412,000 doses distributed to the states, 20,538,000 were injected, or 50%.
By contrast, on the evening of Jan. 13, only 10,278,000 of the 29,380,000, or 35% of the vaccine doses delivered to states, were injected.
Thus, in these 10 days, six of which were President Trump's final days in the White House, the injection rate nationwide increased by a spectacular 100%, or 1 million doses daily.
Not surprisingly, President Joe Biden, who is a mathematical and scientific illiterate, has been hypocritically boasting that his "Manhattan-Project-like" plan is to inoculate 100 million Americans in the next 100 days, or 1 million per day.
Fourteen states have more than 7 million residents, and their combined population of 211 million in July 2020 represents 64% of America's 329 million people.
Six of these states are exceeding the current national vaccination rate of 50%:
| State |
Population
Millions |
Doses
Received |
Doses
Administered |
Utilization
Rate |
| Texas |
29.4 |
3,071,000 |
1,728,000 |
56% |
| Florida |
21.7 |
2,908,000 |
1,489,000 |
51% |
| New York |
19.3 |
2,396,000 |
1,283,000 |
54% |
| Michigan |
10.0 |
1,096,000 |
653,000 |
60% |
| New Jersey |
8.9 |
990,000 |
501,000 |
51% |
| Washington |
7.7 |
846,000 |
437,000 |
52% |
Conversely, eight of the nation's 14 most-populous states are lagging behind the national average of 50%:
| State |
Population
Millions |
Doses
Received |
Doses
Administered
|
Utilization
Rate |
| California |
39.4 |
4,907,000 |
2,008,000 |
45% |
| Pennsylvania |
12.8 |
1,564,000 |
696,000 |
45% |
| Illinois |
12.6 |
1,417,000 |
655,000 |
46% |
| Ohio |
11.7 |
1,233,000 |
604,000 |
48% |
| Georgia |
10.7 |
1,236,000 |
454,000 |
49% |
| North Carolina |
10.6 |
1,247,000 |
577,000 |
46% |
| Virginia |
8.6 |
1,070,000 |
430,000 |
40% |
| Arizona |
7.4 |
830,000 |
361,000 |
43% |
Undoubtedly, during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, California's grossly incompetent, inexperienced Gov. Gavin Newsom, and New York's dictatorial, hapless Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have been the biggest "angels of death and economic destruction."
In addition to California's disastrous 45% vaccination rate, compared to Texas' excellent 56% and Florida's 51%, New York's and California's abominable "Provisional COVID Death Counts" and above-average unemployment rates, starkly highlight Newsom's and Cuomo's mind-boggling failures during this national health crisis:
| State |
Provisional
COVID Deaths |
% of US
349,000 Deaths |
Unemployment
Rate Nov. 2020 |
| New York |
39,000 |
11% |
8.4% |
| California |
28,000 |
8% |
8.2% |
|
|
|
(U.S. average: 6.7%) |
Not surprisingly, in these three life-and-death metrics – deaths, vaccination rates and unemployment rates – Texas and Florida, the two mega-states with Republican governors, Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, have significantly outperformed their counterparts in dysfunctional California and New York:
| State |
Provisional
COVID Deaths |
% of US
Deaths |
Unemployment
Rate Nov. 2020 |
| Texas |
30,000 |
9% |
8.1% |
| Florida |
21,000 |
6% |
6.4% |
Furthermore, during the last year, tens of thousands of New Yorkers, including former President Trump and his family, and Jared and Ivanka Trump and their family, have fled New York for Florida.
Similarly, tens of thousands of Californians have hightailed to Texas during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Fittingly, Gov. Newsom is facing a recall fight, which might result in his well-justified ouster from office.
Texas and Florida increased their combined populations by a spectacular 7.2 million residents during the last decade.
California and New York grew by just a combined 2 million:
| State |
2010 Population |
2020 Population |
Gain or Loss |
| California |
37.3 million |
39.4 million |
2.1 million |
| Texas |
25.1 million |
29.4 million |
4.3 million |
| Florida |
18.8 million |
21.7 million |
2.9 million |
| New York |
19.4 million |
19.3 million |
- .1 million |
Four other highly-populous states with incompetent Democratic governors – Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey – have collectively grown by a miniscule 100,000 residents since 2010.
Governors Tom Wolf, J.B. Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer and Phil Murphy collectively account for 62,000 of America's 349,000 confirmed SARs-CoV-2 deaths, or 18%. If added to the 67,000 combined fatalities in New York and California, these six Democratic states have a highly disproportionate 129,000 deaths, or 37%, of the nation's grim toll.
Yet their combined population of 103 million is only 31% of America's 329 million people.
Furthermore, the average unemployment rates in Nov. 2020, for Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey, was 7.7, one percentage point higher than the national average.
Despite the incessant drumbeat of "Fake News & COVID Epidemiology" from Democratic leaders, including President Biden, and their accomplices in the "Corrupt Liberal Media," millions of Americans, during the last decade, have wisely decamped from a half-dozen, disintegrating Democratic-run states in the Northeast and Midwest, to well-run, booming Republican states in the Sun Belt.
Mark Schulte is a retired New York City schoolteacher and mathematician who has written extensively about science and the history of science. Read Mark Schulte's Report's — More Here.