Correlations Discovered Between Vaccination levels and Infection Rates in the US
Since the beginning of the US rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in December of 2020, new cases,
hospitalizations and deaths have steadily decreased:
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from a January 2021 peak of 240k/day, new cases have decreased to 75k/day,
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hospitalizations peaked in January 2021 at 136k/day, and are currently at 45k/day,
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deaths peaked in January 2021 at 4,100/day and are currently at 932/day.
At the state-level, one could reasonably expect that the states with the highest percentages of
vaccinated population would be experiencing the lowest rates of new cases. But as the chart above
illustrates, we are not yet seeing this trend at the state level. However, there are a few interesting datapoints
worth highlighting in this visualization:.
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New Mexico has the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated at this point – almost 30%.
And their new case rate is one of the lowest in the country.
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Michigan has the highest rate of new COVID cases in the country right now, even though the percentage
of their population that is fully vaccinated is right at the median.
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California has the largest number of people vaccinated in the country. Of course, they are also the most
populous state in the nation so that is not surprising. However, they also have one of the lowest new case
rates in the country.
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And Georgia and Alabama seem to buck all trends. Georgia has the lowest percentage of population vaccinated
of any state in the country, yet their new infection rates are in the lower half of all states. And Alabama
is among the lowest new infection rates in the country while also being one of the states with the lowest
percentage of their population vaccinated. Go figure!