California Has A Big Problem Too-- Overwhelmingly Among Rural Trump Voters

Guess which state gave Trump the most votes in 2020? Hint: raw votes. It wasn't Texas (5,890,347 votes) or Florida (5,668,731 votes). They were number 2 and 3 and Trump won both states. But the biggest number of voters who chose Trump live in California-- 6,006,429-- a state he lost 63.5% to 34.3%. Yep... there are plenty of idiots in the Golden State too. Of California's 58 counties, Trump won 23 of them, although only one (Kern) with a substantial population.

And as long as we're playing guessing games, want to guess which California counties are unvaccinated and filled with COVID-19 hospitalizations? 55% of California is fully vaccinated-- in large part because of solid blue counties like these 6 highly educated Bay Area counties:

• Marin Co.- 75% fully vaccinated (Trump 15.8%)

• Santa Clara Co.- 72% fully vaccinated (Trump 25.2%)

• San Francisco Co.- 71% fully vaccinated (Trump 12.7%)

• San Mateo Co.- 69% fully vaccinated (Trump 20.2%)

• Alameda Co.- 67% fully vaccinated (Trump 17.6%)

• Contra Costa Co.- 66% fully vaccinated (Trump 26.3%)

Some of the reddest, least productive and most socially and politically backward counties in California, the ones hardest hit by Trumpism and COVID, are refusing to report their case loads but this is what the NY Times reports for the 23 counties that went for Trump last year, including the case increase in the last 2 weeks, which was just 10% statewide:

• Lassen Co.- 28% fully vaccinated (Trump 74.5%) -35%

• Modoc Co.- n.a. fully vaccinated (Trump 71.2%) +1,400

• Tehama Co.- 30% fully vaccinated (Trump 66.6%) +94%

• Shasta Co.- 37% fully vaccinated (Trump 65.4%) +97%

• Glenn Co.- 42% fully vaccinated (Trump 62.5%) +107%

• Amador Co.- 41% fully vaccinated (Trump 60.7%) -16%

• Calaveras Co.- 41% fully vaccinated (Trump 60.6%) +42%

• Yuba Co.- 36% fully vaccinated (Trump 59.3%) +37%

• Sierra Co.- n.a. fully vaccinated (Trump 58.6%) +100%

• Tuolumne Co.- 45% fully vaccinated (Trump 58.2%) +20%

• Mariposa Co.- n.a. fully vaccinated (Trump 57.9%) +19%

• Colusa Co.- 44% fully vaccinated (Trump 57.3%) +71%

• Plumas Co.- n.a. fully vaccinated (Trump 57.2%) +161%

• Sutter Co.- 44% fully vaccinated (Trump 57.2%) +47%

• Siskiyou Co.- 43% fully vaccinated (Trump 56.6%) +60%

• Del Norte Co.- 32% fully vaccinated (Trump 56.4%) +46%

• Kings Co.- 32% fully vaccinated (Trump 54.9%) +52%

• Madera Co.- 39% fully vaccinated (Trump 54.7%) +87%

• Kern Co.- 37% fully vaccinated (Trump 53.9%) +46%

• El Dorado Co.- 52% fully vaccinated (Trump 53.2%) +20%

• Tulare Co.- 37% fully vaccinated (Trump 52.8%) +112%

• Placer Co.- 54% fully vaccinated (Trump 52.1%) +22%

• Trinity Co.- n.a. fully vaccinated (Trump 50.4%) +115%

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that 7 Northern California counties are showing record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations this month: Amador, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Shasta and Tuolumne. Humboldt, Lake and Mendocino aren't included in our chart above because Trump didn't win them.

• Humboldt Co.- 53% fully vaccinated (Trump 31.4%) -16%

• Lake Co.- 46% fully vaccinated (Trump 45.3%) -22%

• Mendocino Co.- 54% fully vaccinated (Trump 30.6%) +42%

Most hospitalization are among unvaccinated residents in all 7 counties, which are all reporting that ICU beds are either non-existent or running low. [I]n Del Norte County, emergency room doctor Aaron Stutz has never seen his hospital so understaffed, and worries about what’s to come. Rural California counties are reeling under the latest COVID-19 surge as the delta variant rips across the state and strains already-limited resources in mostly vaccine-hesitant communities. Patients have to wait for beds. Burned-out nurses want to quit. In county after county, intensive care units, which care for the sickest patients, are full... Del Norte County has canceled non-emergency surgeries, restricted visitors and requested more staff from the state’s Emergency Management Services Agency per the hospital’s surge plan. On Tuesday, the county had 23 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, up from six on Aug. 1. It had no ICU beds available. The numbers may sound modest from a big-city perspective, but they are overwhelming for a small rural hospital."

Shwanika Narayan wrote that "Vaccine hesitancy seems to be a big factor in the surge... According to state data released Monday, unvaccinated people in California are more than six times as likely to contract the coronavirus than those who are vaccinated. Doctors in Del Norte and surrounding counties became so frustrated last week that more than 100 of them released a stark public letter, begging people to get vaccinated... The rural doctors had one message for the public: Get vaccinated. The Aug. 16 letter signed by Del Norte County physicians underscored the point: 'You’ve trusted us with every aspect of your health. Please trust us with this. We are not asking you to do anything that we have not already done. Please, for the sake of the community, the young, the old, and all the in-between, get vaccinated.'"