After a difficult start, vaccine distribution efforts in California are so widespread that they rival many countries around the world.
California has distributed 10.6 million vaccines, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 panel. (This is more than 20% of the state’s population over 16 years old.)
Governor Gavin Newsom quoted this statistic in a tweet on Sunday, where he compared the vaccine’s launch in California with that of the most populous nations in the world, including China and India.
If the state were its own nation, it would be ranked sixth in the distribution, behind the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and the entire European Union, says the tweet. California has only recently surpassed all of Brazil.
Given the population of California, 39.5 million people, more than Canada, for example, it is clear that it makes sense that California has distributed so many vaccines.
But the fact that California has vaccinated more people than a country like Germany – despite Germany having almost twice the population of California – is impressive.
It puts in perspective the countless challenges of vaccinating the most populous state in the country.
California is no longer the last to distribute the vaccine based on the used supply, but it is still on the lower rungs of the Bloomberg tracker – which puts the state above Texas and New York, but well below Wisconsin, the state that used it 92% of your doses in your population.
California is also below average, according to Johns Hopkins, in terms of the percentage of residents who are fully vaccinated. (Three million people received both injections, but that is only an eighth of the population.)
However, it seems that Newsom remains optimistic that the vaccine launch in California remains one of the most powerful in the world: “Hope is here”, he wrote in another tweet.