The State of California became the worst of the 50 states in distributing its share of coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, as other states picked up their pace.
Despite improving from 27.5% last week to 37.3% this week, California is “dead last,” as SFGate.com reported Friday:
Thursday’s update to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker shows that the national rate increased from 38.8% last week to 48.6% this week. Last week’s 50th-ranked state was Alabama, which saw its usage rate jump from 21.2% to 41.1% week-over-week. For reference, California was ranked 49th last week.
This week, the 49th, 48th and 47th ranked states in order are Minnesota (39.8%), Virginia (40.2%) and Alabama (41.1%). The top three states are North Dakota (82.8%), West Virginia (73.0%) and New Mexico (68.6%).
Of the nation’s six largest states, California remains the only one with a usage rate below 40%, as was the case last week. Three have since crossed the 50% threshold this week.
California has become the epicenter of this winter’s coronavirus wave. Though there was some improvement over the past week, the COVID-19 crisis — fueled by a new, more easily transmissible strain of the virus first discovered in the United Kingdom — continues.
The state government, however, is flush with cash. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently reported that the state expects to have a $15 billion surplus this year despite the economic crisis — so much cash, in fact, that it may be required to refund some to taxpayers by law.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.