The New York Times, David "masks work and mandates often don't" Leonhardt, May 31, 2022, here:
After
all, the effect of vaccines on severe illness is blazingly obvious in
the geographic data: Places with higher vaccination rates have suffered many fewer Covid deaths.
The patterns are clear even though the world is a messy place, with
many factors other than vaccines influencing Covid death rates.
This is correct, as far as it goes.
The 21 US states in the lower 48 with the lowest daily new deaths per 100,000 of population to date have a vax rate averaging north of 69%. The 21 with the highest daily new deaths per 100k to date have a vax rate averaging not quite 62%.
The death rate to date in those more vaxxed states averages more than 36% lower per 100k of population, 0.28 vs. 0.44/100k.
But is that caused by the almost 12% higher vaccination rate?
What if it's something else?
Population per square mile in those higher vaxxed states with the lowest death rates averages 24% less dense than in the ones suffering the highest death rates, 185 vs. 243/sq.mi. Those states enjoy, for whatever reasons, a pre-existing condition of "social distance" which the highest death rate states do not.
I say 24% trumps 12% in the debate over cause.
"Many factors other than vaccines", or masks, mask mandates, or mask compliance rates, influence "Covid death rates".
