The Johns Hopkins database implies that California's overall positivity rate (i.e. the percent of COVID-19 tests of Californians that are positive) remains roug

The Johns Hopkins database implies that California's overall positivity rate (i.e. the percent of COVID-19 tests of Californians that are positive) remains roughly flat at just under 5%. [1] While that's still a concerning number (and it seems like LA in particular is not doing as well as the rest of CA), California overall is doing reasonably well, as it has been throughout the outbreak, despite our dense cities and massive population. More tests mean more positive results, but doesn't necessarily indicate worsening conditions. Cumulative totals are especially meaningless; of course an area with a large population (e.g. the Bay Area) will have large cumulative totals. The focus on absolute numbers of positive cases (without normalizing by testing rate or population) pretty dramatically distorts the national discourse on COVID-19. California has been slow to reopen — although it is reopening — and has been criticized by the right as experiencing surging cases regardless. But that's largely inaccurate: CA is just much, much larger than any other state, and it's been reliably ramping up testing. As counterexamples, Florida and Arizona are places where the surge in cases is actually reflective of significantly worsening community spread: Arizona's positivity rate has tripled from a low of 6.5% in May to nearly 20% today [2], and Florida's positivity rate has grown 5x from a low of 2.3% in May to over 12% today [3]. Texas, another state that reopened quickly, had its positivity rate double from a low of 4.7% — approximately similar to the rate CA has managed to keep itself at — to 11% today. [4] 1: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/california https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/califo... 2: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/arizona https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/arizon... 3: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florid... 4: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/texas https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/texas