Marin Vaccine Rate Nears 100%

MARIN COUNTY, CA — As many parts of the nation continue to grapple with vaccine hesitancy, Marin is nearing perfection.

As of Monday, 91.1 percent of eligible Marin residents 12 years of age and older have completed their vaccine series and 97.8 percent of county residents have received at least one jab, according to the county’s vaccination dashboard.

Marin tops the state with 76.7 percent of all residents (including those under 12) fully vaccinated, and the North Bay county ranks ninth in the nation among all counties (regardless of population) as of Monday, The New York Times reports.

Marin was the nation's most vaccinated county among those with a population over 250,000 according to data compiled earlier this year by The San Francisco Chronicle.

Marin officials tweeted an expression of gratitude after the county eclipsed the 90 percent full vaccination plateau for eligible residents.

“Thank you, #MarinCounty, for choosing to be vaccinated for the health of our community. Thanks to you, our community has achieved a historic milestone in its response to the pandemic #ThankYouMarin,” the county tweeted.

Marin’s vaccination rate easily tops the nation’s, which as of Monday reported just 65 percent of eligible residents were fully vaccinated and 75 percent had received at least one dose.

Marin’s vaccination rate dwarfs many parts of the country, mostly in red states where vaccine misinformation abounds.

As of Saturday, 18 states not yet fully vaccinated at least half of all residents(Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming), CNN reports. Donald Trump captured all 18 states in the former president’s failed 2020 reelection bid.

In an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle last week, Marin Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis attributed the phenomenally successful vaccine rollout to an adherence to science among the vast majority of residents along with a sense of community, noting a coordinated effort between public and private sectors and the county’s emergency operations center played a big role.

Politics, among other factors, including demographics, were cited as pivotal factors too, according to the report, which noted 61 percent of registered Marin voters identified as Democrats, compared to 13 percent who identified as Republicans.

Joe Biden carried Marin in the 2020 presidential election with 82.33 percent of the vote, compared to just 15.79 percent who backed Trump.

Marin’s high vaccination rate has resulted in low transmission of the coronavirus, despite the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant.

“It’s gratifying to see the impact,” Willis told The Chronicle.

“There is a clear correlation between communities with high vaccination rates and low case rates.”