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CA has had stricter lockdowns than most other states since the very beginning. Now our per capita rate is worse than Florida.

I think CA has many counterproductive restrictions. For example, outdoor dining should’ve been open which could, in theory, prevent people from gathering inside.

[*] https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100k...

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The San Mateo County Health Officer recently published a statement that rhetorically asked this and other similar questions about CA, and I suppose human behavior and response to various types of SAH orders and the like. It was a very well-written piece and was featured here on HN 3 weeks ago[0]. Here’s a direct link[1]. I highly recommend reading to get an honest perspective from someone who has to make these kinds of decisions at the county level.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25341289 [1] https://www.smchealth.org/health-officer-updates/december-7-...

I'll pick on the curfew for outdoor dining. It was a restriction that was added in November. It did nothing, and could have made things worse by having people gathered in a shorter time window. I'm not sure if that's the case, but there wasn't any evidence suggesting it would help, either.

what is crystal clear about this virus now is that gathering with others inside is very bad.

Outdoor dining is not ideal, but could have prevented many indoor gatherings. Remember how CA was closing the beaches in the spring despite that clearly being stupid?

> Now our per capita rate is worse than Florida.

Total infections / capita is still lower in CA than in Florida.

CDC link above paints a different picture

That's the last 7 days. Total area under the curve matters here.

Why is CA doing so poorly? Is it just bigger cities? OR and WA seem to be doing relatively well

too many stupid restrictions just made people fed up and ignore most if not all of them.

Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I was shocked to learn that many of my friends had inside guests for holidays. This is instead of going camping by themselves (banned) or going skiing by themselves (banned too). Even outdoor dining is banned - all you can do is gather inside now.

Many people see stuff like the curfew and know that there is absolutely no science behind such a restriction. If there are restrictions put on people for no good reason people will rebel against data based restrictions as well.

> Why is CA doing so poorly?

A lot of people who can't afford to stay home combined with a bunch of numbnuts who decided to go visit family over Thanksgiving.

This isn't even the Christmas burst yet. It's about to get worse.

do you think CA has a higher rate of “numbnuts” than Florida? I would assume about the same.

Can you trust Florida's numbers? They SWATted a woman for reporting worse numbers.

They SWATted her for allegedly using an emergency broadcast system to say that the numbers were wrong.

This comment is not an endorsement of said actions, just a pedantic correction.

Total deaths per capita still suggests that Florida has more numbnuts than California.

The reporting is also partially where stuff is active right now. El Paso was sending people in ambulances 600 miles to Austin because they were out of room.

"LA Runs Out of Hospital Rooms" is more of a headline than "El Paso Still Out of Hospital Rooms".

Some guesswork here, but looking at the percentages in SoCal the hispanic percentage of COVID cases is much higher[0] and perhaps a driver for the bigger numbers (whatever the root cause).

[0] https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/hhsa/programs...

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