ORLANDO, Fla. — One researcher said in the race of the vaccine versus the virus, some states have already lost.
He said Florida is somewhere in the middle, and we could still prevent enough infections and deaths for the vaccine to be a real help.
However, Florida and California have been trading back spots for No. 1 and No. 2 for the most cases of the COVID-19 U.K. variant. As of Sunday, Florida has the most with 125 cases.
Watch: Florida launches platform to pre-register for COVID-19 vaccine appointments: How to sign up
Florida has half the population of California and has had about half the overall cases every day. This suggests the variant could be spreading much more quickly here.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already stated that the mutation makes COVID-19 more transmissible than the original virus.
And that’s on top of what researchers say is a very high baseline.
After a post-holiday decline, Florida has essentially plateaued at around 11,000 cases per day on average.
So the concern is what could happen if we didn’t slow down transmissions and the U.K. variant spreads unchecked.
“If it comes through Florida and starts to supplant to take over and replace the other variants that had previously been in circulation, it’s going to mean that even more people are going to get infected before they get the vaccine,” said Columbia University researcher Jeffrey Shaman.
Watch: Here’s where to find the COVID-19 vaccine in your county
So that means the state needs more vaccines and give those to more people in order to prevent more deaths.
See the full report in the video above.
Cox Media Group
