Two U.S. counties lauded by ABC News for their highest-in-state vaccination rates have significantly higher-than-average coronavirus infection rates.
QUICK FACTS:
- ABC News touted three U.S. counties for having “reached the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in their states,” in a piece titled “How 3 counties reached the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in their states.”
- ABC characterized these counties with higher-than-average vaccination rates as “lead[ing] the way” in their states.
- However, one county did not make a top three spot in its state in lowest infection rates.
- McKinley County, New Mexico and Teton, Wyoming in fact show significantly higher-than-average infection rates in spite of also having the highest vaccination rates in their states.
MCKINLEY COUNTY, NEW MEXICO
- ABC reported on Friday that “as of Monday, over 94% of [McKinley County] residents ages 18 and up have received at least one dose, according to the latest state health department data.”
- Nearly 80% of the county’s residents are Native American, according to the U.S. Census, notes ABC. The Indian Health Service held drive-thru events at the Fire Rock Casino in Church Rock, conducting outreach to the Navajo Nation to make it more convenient to get the vaccine. The county has been focused on “bringing people back for their second dose” and increasing “vaccination efforts in those ages 12 to 16,” ABC reports.
- However, McKinley County ranks fourth highest in rates of infection among New Mexico’s 33 counties, according to data reported by the New Mexico Department of Health aggregated by Wikipedia. McKinley County, therefore, has above-average vaccination rates but also above-average infection rates.
LAMOILLE COUNTY, VERMONT
- ABC reports over 85% of residents ages 12 and up in Lamoille County, Vermont currently have received at least one vaccine dose, according to state data.
- Health officials have been connecting with local churches, schools, manufacturers, and ski resorts “as part of the vaccination efforts to reach the community and workforce,” according to ABC. “The local health office has held clinics at skate parks, fairs and race tracks in the state, and health officials look to continue to do efforts like that to continue to bring numbers up.”
- Although Lamoille County has the highest vaccination rates in the state, it only has the fourth lowest infection rate among its citizens out of 14 counties, according to data reported by the Vermont Department of Health and aggregated by Wikipedia.
TETON, WYOMING
- Nearly 60% of residents are fully vaccinated in Wyoming’s Teton County, reports ABC, which is “higher than the national average.”
- However, Teton county ranks seventh highest in reported COVID-19 cases out of all 23 Wyoming counties, according to reports from the Wyoming Department of Health collected by Wikipedia. Therefore, while Teton county has above-average vaccination rates, it also nevertheless has above-average infection rates among its citizens.
GOING DEEPER:
- Despite Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) intentionally urging Floridians to get vaccinated, Florida’s being the first state in the nation to vaccinate more than 500,000 individuals 65 years of age or older, and the state’s commencement of vaccine administrations as early as mid-December of 2020, Florida is currently leading the U.S. in Covid-19 cases, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Vaccinated individuals comprise the majority (75%) of new coronavirus infections in Singapore, Breitbart reports.
- Dr. Peter McCullough—a cardiologist and epidemiologist who has thousands of publications and citations in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) database—has warned that current coronavirus vaccines are ineffective against new viral variants (such as the “Delta” variant, a more “aggressive” and “transmissible” strain, according to the CDC) because the vaccines only target the original COVID spike protein, which is now “extinct.” “Patients are getting vaccinated to something that doesn’t even exist anymore,” says McCullough. “That Wuhan spike protein is gone.”
Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith.
