‘I wear my mask and hope for the best’: life in one of California’s least vaccinated counties

With Covid-19 cases surging across California last month, Bill Canterberry decided it was time to get the vaccine.

For months, the Lassen county resident had worn his mask and waited. Worried by news reports about rare but severe side effects, he put off getting a shot. When his wife was vaccinated earlier in the year, he monitored her closely, just to be sure.

Then came the Delta variant.

“I waited until the wire with the variants,” Canterberry said. “I just waited until I wasn’t afraid. There was so much crap about the vaccine.”

Related: San Francisco may be first major US city to hit herd immunity, experts say

Canterberry is not alone in this rural, largely conservative region of 30,000 in north-eastern California. With just 27% of residents older than 12 fully vaccinated, according to New York Times data, Lassen county has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Local officials have said the county vaccination rate is higher than the data suggests, hovering near 56% for residents 16 and older. But even those numbers would put the area well below the statewide rate.

Canterberry said some of his friends have refused to get the vaccine and criticized him for getting his shot in July, positions he attributed to their support for Donald Trump and refusal to believe Covid is real. “People aren’t taking it seriously. They [tell me] ‘You drank the Kool-Aid.’”

“I worry about them, but they choose their own route.”

‘People are scared’

Residents say Lassen has so far avoided the worst of the pandemic. The county has recorded nearly 6,000 Covid-19 cases since March 2020, at least 3,600 of them in the county’s three prisons, according to county and state data. Data from the New York Times suggests as many as 4,500 cases were in area prisons. Twenty-six people have died of the virus, just two of whom were inmates.

Just in the past two weeks, however, reported cases have increased 556% and hospitalizations rose 28%, the New York Times data shows. The county reports 29 active cases, while there are four cases at High Desert state prison.

The surge comes as counties across California have recorded a sharp rise in cases as the highly contagious Delta variant makes its way through the state. The Delta variant is far more transmissible than other viruses in the coronavirus family, the CDC has said, and data suggests vaccinated people can spread it, though they are far less likely to do so than unvaccinated people.

In response, California’s public health department has recommended residents wear masks in public indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status. Multiple counties, from Sacramento to the Bay Area to Los Angeles, have reinstated such mask mandates. San Francisco and Los Angeles are considering requiring proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms and concerts.

But the most effective way to curb the spread of the Delta variant, state and federal public health experts say, are vaccinations. Doctors say most people with Covid now hospitalized have not been vaccinated.

California has seen a substantial increase in vaccinations over the last two weeks amid growing fears about Delta. “People are getting scared,” said Dr Bradley Pollock, an epidemiologist at UC Davis and the chair of the department of public health sciences. “This version of the virus is almost as contagious as chicken pox, so all bets are off.”

But Lassen county has a long way to catch up. County officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the disparity. However, the county’s rural location as well as vaccine access and vaccine hesitancy are likely playing a role.

“There’s a combination of factors,” said Pollock, including an attitude of self-sufficiency and independence more common in rural areas.

Then there’s politics – Lassen county is the most Republican in the state. “There’s no question, looking at survey information, that there are differences in vaccine behavior based on party. Independents and Republicans tend to have lower vaccination rates so there may be some political things driving it,” Pollock said.

There are some people who will never get vaccinated and can’t be convinced to do so, Pollock said. And there are others who are hesitant, due to concerns about the vaccine’s development or because it isn’t convenient for them to get the vaccine, particularly if they live in a rural, isolated area.

Vaccine politics

In Susanville, the county seat, Judy Jambois was waiting outside a county health office to get her grandson vaccinated. She has one good friend that won’t take the vaccine, she said. “That’s her choice. But I worry for her,” Jambois said. “I told her: ‘I have mixed feelings about being around you.’”

But, she added, “I don’t want to ostracize the people from my life just because they don’t have it. I wear my mask and hope for the best.”

Jambois had been encouraging those around her to get a shot, she said, including her grandson who was visiting from out of town. “He didn’t want to get a shot but I said ‘If I get it and die I will haunt you for the rest of my days,’” she joked.

The Lassen county health and social services director, Barbara Longo, has said her county’s vaccination rates are far higher than state data, which the New York Times tally is based on, suggest. Local estimates, Longo says, put the rate of fully vaccinated residents near 56% for residents 16 and older.

Longo told CalMatters that the discrepancy is due to how the state and county calculate the area’s population – the state includes prison inmates in its count while Longo does not because the inmates don’t regularly interact with other residents.

“We continue to explain our data to the state, they hear us, but it doesn’t change, so I’ve given up,” Longo told the news organization.

The state department of public health confirmed the county and state have spoken about the impact of population estimates on vaccination numbers and said: ​​“CDPH is also working with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to find ways to better capture vaccination data for incarcerated individuals in the CAIR system. CDPH expects this will help provide a more accurate picture of vaccination rates in smaller counties.”

But Lassen residents have long worried about the outbreaks in the prisons. The prison industry is a major employer in the area, and outbreaks there have sparked concerns prison workers could get infected and spread the virus in the community. As of May, fewer than half of workers in California prisons had received vaccinations, though a federal judge is considering requiring vaccines for prison employees. Just 16% of corrections officers at High Desert state prison in Susanville are vaccinated, according to a federal receiver who oversees medical care in state prisons.

Meanwhile, life in the county has largely returned to normal after opening back up in April, residents said. The county has not put in place further restrictions since the rise of the Delta variant, though the county office of education has said, unlike other small districts, that it plans to enforce a state mask mandate in schools.

Still, some residents worry about what lies ahead. In recent weeks, wildfires raging nearby have covered the community in thick smoke and ash, making the air hazardous and casting a shadow of uncertainty in the area.

Margie Teeter, who has lived in Susanville for 43 years and owns a bookstore in the uptown district, said most everyone she knows is vaccinated, but that there is still extreme resistance among some people in the area.

Some people simply deny that there were nearly 6,000 Covid cases in the county, she said. “One person told me ‘I’m not gonna get it. It’s all fake.’”

Susanville, Teeter says, is a welcoming place with friendly people – the sort of town where customers helped her move her store three different times over the years – but she worries for her community given some local opposition to vaccines and Covid safety measures.

“We’re watching the news and it’s scary,” she said. “What’s this town gonna do? They’re not gonna wear masks.”