Californians may have developed some herd immunity to coronavirus last year, Stanford team theorizes

Coronavirus: California Gov. Gavin Newsom provided an update to the state’s COVID-19 modeling on Friday that reveals the impact of physical distancing efforts

By ABC7.com staff

LOS ANGELES — New York state has half the population of California but has experienced 14 times as many deaths from coronavirus.

Experts are looking into several possibilities as to why California hasn’t been hit as hard.

The trend has been particularly surprising, experts say, given the state has a large number of people in poverty and homelessness, and saw a substantial amount of travel to and from China last year.

One theory centers around the idea of herd immunity – the concept that a large percentage of a population has already contracted and become immune to an infection, slowing the rate at which it spreads to others.

MORE: Expert explains how herd immunity could contribute to slowing spread of COVID-19

Editor’s Note: Related article – Flu Cases Spike, Killing 44 People This Week In California

Read the rest of the story on ABC7

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