Counties With Highest Vaccination Rates See More COVID-19 Cases Than Least Vaccinated

A medical volunteer prepares a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for a patient in Orange, Calif., on March 9, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

U.S. counties with the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 are currently experiencing more cases than those with the lowest vaccination rates, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The 500 counties where 62 to 95 percent of the population has been vaccinated detected more than 75 cases per 100,000 residents on average in the past week. Meanwhile, the 500 counties where 11 to 40 percent of the population has been vaccinated averaged about 58 cases per 100,000 residents.

The data is skewed by the fact that the CDC suppresses figures for counties with very low numbers of detected cases (one to nine) for privacy purposes. The Epoch Times calculated the average case rates by assuming the counties with the suppressed numbers had five cases each on average.

The least vaccinated counties tended to be much smaller, averaging less than 20,000 in population. The most vaccinated counties had an average population of over 330,000. More populous counties, however, weren’t more likely to have higher case rates.

A group of teenagers receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine in Detroit on April 6, 2021. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

Even when comparing counties of similar population, the ones with the most vaccinations tended to have higher case rates than those that reported the least vaccinations.

Among counties with populations of 1 million or more, the 10 most vaccinated had a case rate more than 27 percent higher than the 10 least vaccinated. In counties with populations of 500,000 to 1 million, the 10 most vaccinated had a case rate almost 19 percent higher than the 10 least vaccinated.

In counties with populations of 200,000 to 500,000, the 10 most vaccinated had case rates around 55 percent higher than the 10 least vaccinated.

The difference was more than 200 percent for counties with populations of 100,000 to 200,000.

For counties with smaller populations, the comparison becomes increasingly difficult because so much of the data is suppressed.

A nurse administers a dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles, on Jan. 19, 2022. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Another problem is that the prevalence of testing for COVID-19 infections isn’t uniform. A county may have a low case number on paper because its residents are tested less often.

The massive spike in infections during the winter appears to have abated in recent weeks. Detected infections are down to less than 30,000 per day from a high of over 800,000 per day in mid-January, according to CDC data. The seven-day average of currently hospitalized dropped to about 11,000 on April 1, from nearly 150,000 in January.

The most recent wave of COVID-19 has been attributed to the Omicron virus variant, which is more transmissible but less virulent. The variant also seems more capable of overcoming any protection offered by the vaccines, though, according to the CDC, the vaccines still reduce the risk of severe disease.